Soviet-socialist-style kidnap, abuse of

‘Occupier’ tortured in TO mental ward

So the Occupiers had to leave the

park; after all, the city had to “get

the park ready for the winter”. What?

Trees and shrubs have coped with

winter since the natives lived in this

park. As an excuse, you could read

the bible through it. And that is how

Claudia, a young Occupier, ended up

in the mental ward of St. Joseph’s

Hospital.

After three months, ‘occupiers’ were

told to leave a perfecrly habitable squat, a

city-owned building, feasible enough for

the city to mull over an extension of their

time there. It was the warmth of this hope

that inspired this young woman to begin

picking up the litter on the lawn of her

possible future home. She had climbed

a mesh fence ten feet high to carry out

her accustomed duties to the lawn. After

three hours of volunteer cleaning, there

appeared a city worker. Claudia, knowing

him from previous talks, said “How

are you today?” Within two minutes, two

police arrived, and hearing that she was

not leaving, handcuffed her, picked her

up and put her into the back seat of their

cruiser. At St. Joseph’s, the emergency

intern would not accept her name because

it was not on record. She advised

them that her religion would not allow

them to medicate her or take her blood.

The police then escorted her to the mental

ward, she was force medicated and

her blood was taken by four security

guards. She was dragged across the

floor, bleeding from menstruation

while the patients, mostly women,

looked on screaming at the ‘guards’

to stop.

She was put into the solitary room

on an already blood-stained bed.

They cuffed her hands upwards and

cuffed her opened legs and she lay

for fifteen hours spread eagled

without any underwear. The four

security guards looked on in interest,

then three left while one continued

his surveillance while she

obeyed the needle and slept.

After fifteen hours Claudia was

allowed outside the solitary confinement.

The next thing she remembered

was being once more in

solitary reading a book and this was

Wednesday afternoon, day three.

Day two was a blur because of the drugs.

On day three, Claudia’s mother arrived,

having not heard from her in three days.

Suddenly it was decided that Claudia had

better see the psychiatrist.

SCENE: The shrink’s office. He

says he will allow the mother to

come in after he has seen Claudia

alone. He has two questions: why

she was calling the hospital the Taj

Mahal and why did she mention

Lucifer. Apparently she was being

sarcastic about her surroundings

also referring to the shrink as Lucifer

with black humour. Regarding

her meditation on the cleaned lawn, he

asked her mother why she was praying

to the dirt. Apparently he had no

knowledge of indigenous culture.

Her mother reiterated what her daughter

had told the hospital on arrival, that

her daughter”s religion was Inca and

did not allow the taking of blood or

medication. As her mother was about

to leave with Claudia, he admitted that

Claudia was not living in his jurisdiction

and without drugs, she would be

of no use to him. He recommended

that Claudia stay because she had psychosis

schizophrenia and they would

keep a close watch on her. I close this

lesson by asking, would this surveillance

be with her legs wide open?

-- Sydney White

Investigative Journalist