Vol. 5, No. 4 - Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto

that abuses at the Hospital violate
provisions of The Charter of Rights
and Freedoms.
The Quebec Human Rights Commission,
which has been represented
at the hearings, says it will consider
intervening should the court halt the
Shadley Commission of Inquiry.
A new organization of parents and
advocates (Le Regroupement pour
I'lntegration dans la Communaute)
has asked Quebec's Minister of
Social Services and Health to put
I'Hopital-Riviere-des-Prairies into
trusteeship. They say it will take a
new administration to end the abuses
and operate the Institution so as to
meet the needs of the people shut
away and help them prepare to live
in the community.
The Minister told them he needed
more information; he asked for a
dozen-or-so affidavits. He was
given 191 affidavits from parents and
from staff and professionals at the Institution.
The statements all testified
to specific abuses that had been witnessed.
In addition, the organization
submitted a 20-page brief summarizing
the abuse of rights at Rivieredes-Prairies
and calling on the Minister
to act. The Minister responded
by sending the affidavits to the Corporation
Professionnelle des
Medecins de Quebec (which
represents about 700 psychiatrists in
the province) for review.
The President of the Corporation,
Dr Augustin Roy, has already made
up his mind about the activities at
Riviere-des-Prairies. He has publicly
expressed his support for the Institution
and dismissed the
complaints as exaggerated - part of
a campaign to blacken the reputation
of the Hospital. He claimed that such
incidents are isolated, but occur in
every hospital because of what he
called the serious state of patients
there. According to Dr Roy, the Corporation
will not have checked into
the complaints against doctors at the
Institution until at least December.
La Ligue des Droits et Libertes (a
Quebec human rights Association)
has called on the Quebec
government to place Riviere-des­
Prairies in trusteeship. It describes
practices in the hospital as " ... not a
case of isolated incidents, but of a
system that provokes abuses."
"Doctors are not above fundamental
rights, says 'La Ligue' in charging
12 Phoenix Rising
Who are the people
living at the Institution?
Four hundred and twenty-five
adults live at the Hospital, 83 percent
of whom are diagnosed as
"mentally retarded" and 17 percent
as having "psychiatric troubles."
Their average age is 27 and the
average period of hospitalization is
16.5 years. A 'typical' resident would
be someone who was placed in the
Institution 16 years ago when he br
she was 10 years old. There were
almost no services in the community
at that time to serve the child or help
the family. In many cases schools
simply refused to let the child attend
and the parents - often poor and
raising other children - put their
child in the Institution with the hope
that it would offer useful programs.
Of the 175 children living at
Riviere-des-Prairies, 52 percent have
been diagnosed as "mentally retarded"
and 48 percent as having
"psychiatrric troubles." Their average
age is 15.6 years and their average
length of stay in the hospital is six
years.