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