April 9, 2013
Justin Trudeau
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario Canada
Reference: Duplessis Orphans’ abuses
Dear Justin Trudeau,
My name is Lynn Bowne Weed. I am a paralegal and Co-Director of Kelb, “Keep The Ethical Light Burning“, a non-profit organization based in New York City, U.S. I am writing on behalf of Mr. Rod Vienneau and the group he advocates for, Duplessis orphans. Our concerns are the abuses, which occurred when the orphans were placed in the orphanages and some were transferred to psychiatric hospitals, with false diagnoses which enabled illegal experimentation (approximately 1946- 1986).
Our organization advocates for survivors of non-consensual experimentation and abuse, often at the hands of government agencies and third party contractors. The issue of non-consensual experimentation, performed on Duplessis orphans, across the nation of Canada, is one such abuse. We believe this is as violative of human rights and international law, as the U.S. Tuskegee experimentation, radiation experimentation and MK-Ultra experimentation, in the United States. MK-Ultra experimentation did apparently occur, in these institutions, across Canada.
The survivors and their advocates are seeking support and intervention from you, as they try to move forward. These children (now adults) were severely abused (both psychologically and physically) in the psychiatric hospitals they were illegally moved to and warehoused in. Your support, Mr. Trudeau, on these extreme and abusive denials of human rights, is sorely sought and needed. They need advocacy and to be made whole, after so many years. They need the false labels of ‘mentally retarded’ to be removed. They need to be able to “close the door”, on this unfortunate chapter of their lives and world history.
Human rights violations need to be examined in the light of day (as opposed to the closed wards of the psychiatric institutions, all those years ago, where these infants and young children were unable to “call out“). These children, who are now adults, need the advocacy and support of professionals, such as yourself, as they bravely seek the justice and human rights, denied to them.
“Human and civil rights” are concepts written into State and International law. They intertwine and extend to the world’s public interest. They appear in the tenets of the International Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations).
These concepts reinforce the Nuremberg Code, as an operative norm of legal justice. The legal norm we emphasize on this issue, is in the Nuremberg Code, and is the statement that “no human experimentation shall occur without the informed consent of the human subject.”
This norm of practice was severely violated with infants and children, motherless and fatherless and incapable of any kind of “consent”, in the institutions they were transferred to, during these years, by doctors and staff. Experimental brain implants were placed into the skulls of some of these vulnerable children, by cutting into their brains. If the child did not survive, he/she was buried, to the closed, unknowing eyes of the outside world. These are extreme violations of law and clearly, of human rights.
Along with the Nuremberg Code, “norm of practice”, Contestabile defines: “If we disregard aspects (of activity) which are not relevant for sentient beings, then the value of the world corresponds to the aggregated (and weighed) welfare of its inhabitants.” 1
Rights theorists demand that tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (including the directive against torture) are honored. By assigning priority to human rights they become a side constraint for every theory that seeks a quantitative optimization of the state of affairs. 2. We believe we cannot accept any concept that it is acceptable to hurt a small innocent group for the greater good or benefit of the larger group, “society”, for medical testing, or any other non-consensual testing outcomes. This is the argument against utilitarianism and we firmly advocate for this philosophical tenant.
These are bedrock tenants of law and humanistic philosophy, that we believe make adjudication, for this case imperative.
For adult survivors, these memories survive and often haunt. As one who works with survivors of this traumatic experimental abuse, every week, I can say, that these memories are not easily dissipated. They can last and influence a lifetime. Advocacy and support from a civil rights’ agency, who “know the ropes” in these types of abuses, and can advise, is vital to their progress.
We believe it is necessary to give these courageous survivors, the justice the Canadian government is capable of providing, so that they can continue their lives, families and work, in peace. And so they can continue to work towards ‘wholeness’. Removal of stigmatizing and false labels, such as ‘mental retardation’ is also imperative to this ‘wholeness’.
Would you reply to me, about this very important issue? Thank you for your kind attentions to our letter and this issue.
Very sincerely,
Lynn Bowne Weed
Paralegal, NYC, U.S.
Bowne House Historical Society Member
17th Generation, Bowne Quaker Family
Flushing Remonstrance, for Religious Freedom
1600’s Forerunner to the U.S. Bill of Rights
Co-Director, Kelb, Inc.
“Keep The Ethical Light Burning”
http://www.keepethicallightburing.org
(347) 478-9582
cc: Mr. Rod Vienneau
Lynn Bowne Weed
Paralegal, NYC, U.S.
Bowne House Historical Society Member
17th Generation, Bowne Quaker Family
Flushing Remonstrance, for Religious Freedom
1600’s Forerunner to the U.S. Bill of Rights
Co-Director, Kelb, Inc.
“Keep The Ethical Light Burning”
www.keepethicallightburing.org
(347) 478-9582
cc: Mr. Rod Vienneau, President:
Comité Les Enfants de la
Grande Noirceur (C.E.G.N.)
Commission for Victims
of Crimes against Humanity (CVCCH)
Author of book:Les Enfants de la Grande Noirceur
English: Collusion:The dark History of the Duplessis Orphans
779 Précieux-Sang
Joliette, Qc J6E 2M8
C.C. Attorney Jonathan Levi,
Washington DC
Member of the International Penal Court – The Hague
Notes, References:1., 2.,http://www.phil.ethz.ch/fileadmin/phil/files/Justice.pdf
Keep the Ethical Light Burning 