790. Cité de st-jean-de-dieu insane asylum

The Cité de st-jean-de-dieu insane asylum earlier known as the Longue Pointe Lunatic Asylum was one of facilities that housed the so-called Duplessis Orphans in Canada. Under the rule of Maurice Duplessis the government sought to save money on the social welfare budget and got the Roman Catolic Church to run asylums. The children who ended up there were sent for a number of reasons but basically because they could be warehoused cheap until they became adults.

It would require more than one post to describe the ordeal the children went through but there were examples of use of lobotomies, electroshock and straitjackets. As when the church is involved there were also examples of abuse, sometime physical.

It could not have been fun to be there as a child

Sources:

• Montreal horror: inside a highly-secretive mental institution (Coolopolis Montreal alles the uber)
• Longue Pointe Asylum

(Asylum Projects)

• Duplessis orphans call for exhumations: Aim to show children were experimented upon (Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust)
• Duplessis Orphans