The Duplessis Orphans () were a population of Canadian children wrongly certified as mentally ill by the provincial government of

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

and confined to psychiatric institutions in the 1940s and 1950s. Many of these children were deliberately miscertified in order to acquire additional subsidies from the federal government. They are named for

Maurice Duplessis Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis, (; April 20, 1890 – September 7, 1959) byname "Le Chef" (, "The Boss"), was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 16th premier of Quebec. A Conservatism in Canada, conservative, Quebec nationalism, ...

, who served as

Premier of Quebec The premier of Quebec ( (masculine) or eminine is the head of government of the Canadian province of Quebec. The current premier of Quebec is François Legault of the Coalition Avenir Québec, sworn in on October 18, 2018, following tha ...

for five non-consecutive terms between 1936 and 1959. The controversies associated with Duplessis, and particularly the corruption and abuse concerning the Duplessis Orphans, have led to the popular historic conception of his term as Premier as ''La Grande Noirceur'' ("The Great Darkness") by its critics. The Duplessis Orphans have accused both the government of Quebec and the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

of wrongdoing. The Catholic Church has denied involvement in the scandal, and disputes the claims of those seeking financial compensation for harm done. It is believed to be the largest case of child abuse in Canadian history outside of the

Canadian Indian residential school system The Canadian Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. The network was funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by various Christian churches. The sch ...

Background

During the 1940s and 1950s, limited

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...

were available to residents of

. Before the

Quiet Revolution The Quiet Revolution () was a period of socio-political and socio-cultural transformation in French Canada, particularly in Quebec, following the 1960 Quebec general election. This period was marked by the secularization of the government, the ...

of the 1960s, most of the social services available were provided through the

. Among their charges were people considered to be socially vulnerable: those living in poverty, alcoholics or other individuals deemed unable to retain work, unwed mothers, and

orphan An orphan is a child whose parents have died, are unknown, or have permanently abandoned them. It can also refer to a child who has lost only one parent, as the Hebrew language, Hebrew translation, for example, is "fatherless". In some languages ...

s. The Catholic Church urged many mothers to admit children to orphanages despite not having been formally orphaned due to their "bastard" status (being born to unwed mothers). Some of these orphanages were operated by Roman Catholic religious institutions, due to a lack of secular investment in social services; they encouraged unwed mothers to leave their children there, so that they might be raised in the Roman Catholic church. Maternity homes for unwed mothers, too, then prevalent, often encouraged the giving up of these "bastard" children. The ''Loi sur les Asiles d'aliénés'' (Lunatic Asylum Act) of 1909 governed

mental institution A psychiatric hospital, also known as a mental health hospital, a behavioral health hospital, or an asylum is a specialized medical facility that focuses on the treatment of severe mental disorders. These institutions cater to patients with ...

admissions until 1950. The law stated the mentally ill could be committed for three reasons: to care for them, to help them, or as a measure to maintain social order in public and private life. However, the act did not define what a disruption of social order was, leaving the decision to admit patients up to psychiatrists. The provincial government of Union Nationale

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

received

subsidies A subsidy, subvention or government incentive is a type of government expenditure for individuals and households, as well as businesses with the aim of stabilizing the economy. It ensures that individuals and households are viable by having acce ...

from the federal government for building hospitals, but received substantially fewer subsidies to support orphanages. Government contributions were only $1.25 a day for orphans, but $2.75 a day for psychiatric patients. This disparity in funding provided a strong financial incentive for reclassification. Under Duplessis, the provincial government was responsible for a significant number of healthy older children being deliberately classified as mentally ill and sent to psychiatric hospitals, based on diagnoses made for fiscal reasons. Duplessis also signed an

order-in-council An Order in Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom, this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council ('' ...

which changed the classification of orphanages into hospitals in order to provide them with federal subsidies. A commission in the early 1960s investigating mental institutions after Duplessis' death revealed one-third of the 22,000 patients classified as "mentally ill" were classified as such for the province's financial benefit, and not due to any real psychiatric deficit. Following the publication of the Bédard report in 1962, the province ceased retaining the institutional notion of "asylum". When many of the orphans reached adulthood, in light of these institutional changes, they were permitted to leave the facilities.

Impacts on orphans

Years later, long after these institutions were closed, survivors of the asylums began to speak out about

child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical abuse, physical, child sexual abuse, sexual, emotional and/or psychological abuse, psychological maltreatment or Child neglect, neglect of a child, especially by a p ...

which they endured at the hands of some staff and medical personnel. Many who have spoken publicly about their experiences claim that they had been abused physically and sexually, and were subjected to lobotomies, electroshock and

straitjacket A straitjacket is a garment shaped like a jacket with long sleeves that surpass the tips of the wearer's fingers. Its most typical use is restraining people who may cause harm to themselves or others. Once the wearer's arms are in the sleeves, ...

s. In a psychiatric study completed by one of the involved hospitals, middle-aged Duplessis Orphans reported more physical and mental impairments than the

control group In the design of experiments, hypotheses are applied to experimental units in a treatment group. In comparative experiments, members of a control group receive a standard treatment, a placebo, or no treatment at all. There may be more than one tr ...

. In addition, the orphans were less likely to be married or to have a healthy social life. 80% reported they had suffered a traumatic experience between the ages of 7 and 18. Over 50% said they had undergone physical, mental, or sexual abuse. About 78% reported difficulty functioning socially or emotionally in their adult life.

Legal recourse in the 1990s

By the 1990s, about 3,000 survivors and a large group of supporters formed the Duplessis Orphans Committee, seeking

damages At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognized at ...

from the Quebec provincial government. In March 1999, the provincial government made an offer of approximately CAD$15,000 as full compensation to each of the victims. The offer was rejected and the provincial government was harshly criticized, with Quebec's

ombudsman An ombudsman ( , also ) is a government employee who investigates and tries to resolve complaints, usually through recommendations (binding or not) or mediation. They are usually appointed by the government or by parliament (often with a sign ...

at the time, Daniel Jacoby, saying that the government's handling of the affair trivialized the abuse alleged by the victims.Modest Offer, Apology Rejected
at Duplessis Orphans' CBC Digital Archives In 2001, the claimants received an increased offer from the provincial government for a flat payment of $10,000 per person, plus an additional $1,000 for each year of wrongful confinement to a mental institution. The offer amounted to approximately $25,000 per orphan,"Duplessis orphans accept Quebec's final offer"
CBC News, July 1, 2001. but did not include any compensation for alleged victims of sexual or other abuse. After the offer was accepted by representatives of the Duplessis Orphans Committee, the result was bitterly contested by other members upon learning that under the terms of the settlement, the committee's lawyer, president, and former

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...

official would receive six- to seven-figure payments, in comparison with the paltry amount given to the actual victims. The committee subsequently voted to replace both the president and the public relations official. Critics of the judgment pointed out that three of the bureaucrats running the government's compensation program were being paid over $1,000 per day for work, whereas the orphans themselves received the same amount of money for an entire year of their confinement. Seven religious communities were involved in operating some of the facilities: the Sisters of Providence, the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute for women in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. In 2019, the institute had about 6,200 Religious sister, sisters worldwide, organized into a number ...

, the

Grey Nuns of Montreal The Sisters of Charity of Montreal, formerly called The Sisters of Charity of the Hôpital Général of Montreal and more commonly known as the Grey Nuns of Montreal, is a Canadian religious institute of Roman Catholic religious sisters, found ...

, the Sisters of Charity of Quebec, the Little Franciscans of Mary, the Brothers of Notre-Dame-de-la-Misericorde, and the Brothers of Charity. When the settlement with the provincial government was reached, the orphans agreed to drop any further legal action against the Catholic Church. This offended some survivors; in 2006, one of the Orphans, Martin Lécuyer, stated, "It's important for me, that the Church, the priests, that they recognize they were responsible for the sexual abuse, and the aggression. It's not for the government to set that peace... It's an insult, and it's the biggest proof that the government is an accomplice of the Church."

Aftermath

In 1999, researchers Léo-Paul Lauzon and Martin Poirier issued a report arguing that both the Quebec provincial government and the Catholic Church made substantial profits by falsely certifying thousands of Quebec orphans as mentally ill during Duplessis' premiership. The authors made a conservative estimate that religious groups received $70 million in subsidies (measured in 1999 dollars) by claiming the children as "mentally deficient", while the government saved $37 million simply by having one of its orphanages redesignated from an educational institution to a psychiatric hospital. A representative of a religious order involved with the orphanages accused the authors of making "false assertions". In 2010, it was estimated that approximately 300–400 of the original Duplessis Orphans were still alive. On March 4, 1999, after a criminal investigation where 240 Duplessis Orphans alleged 321 criminal accusations against those in charge of the hospitals, former Quebec Premier

Lucien Bouchard Lucien Bouchard (; born December 22, 1938) is a Canadian lawyer, diplomat and retired politician. A minister for two years in the 24th Canadian Ministry, Mulroney cabinet, Bouchard then founded and led the Bloc Québécois and became Leader ...

declared a public apology to the orphans, but "without blaming or imputing legal responsibility to anyone."

Fate of human remains

In 2004, some Duplessis Orphans asked the Quebec government to unearth an abandoned cemetery in the east end of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, which they believed to have held the remains of orphans who may have been the subject of

human experimentation Human subject research is systematic, scientific investigation that can be either interventional (a "trial") or observational (no "test article") and involves human beings as research subjects, commonly known as test subjects. Human subject r ...

. According to testimony by individuals who were at the Cité de St-Jean-de-Dieu insane asylum, the orphans in the asylum's care were routinely used as non-consensual experimental subjects, and many died as a consequence. The group wanted the government to exhume the bodies so that

autopsies An autopsy (also referred to as post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death; ...

may be performed. In November 2010, the Duplessis Orphans made their case before the

United Nations Human Rights Council The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a United Nations Regional Gro ...

. In 2021, preliminary ground-penetrating radar analyses on grounds around former

Canadian Indian residential schools The Canadian Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. The network was funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by various Christian churches. The scho ...

allegedly indicated the presence of unmarked graves that could include the remains of Indigenous children that were also mainly administered by Christian churches. This has spurred further calls for the Quebec government and the Catholic Church to excavate former psychiatric hospital sites where the orphans were committed, with a class action lawsuit launched in 2018 denouncing the earlier settlement as "an insult" and not a "true apology" by the government and religious organizations.

Notes

References

* Paulin, Marguerite. ''Maurice Duplessis: Powerbroker, Politician'', XYZ Publishing, Montreal, 2005 * Thifault, Marie-Claude and Perreault, Isabelle. "The Social Integration of the Mentally Ill in Quebec Prior to the Bédard Report of 1962", ''Canadian Bulletin of Medical History'', 2002, vol. 29, no. 1

External links

The Duplessis Orphans
at CBC Digital Archives

a composition b

with Hervé Bertrand, a Duplessis Orphan. {{adopt First premiership of Maurice Duplessis Second premiership of Maurice Duplessis Political scandals in Canada Victims of human rights abuses History of psychiatry Medical malpractice History of Catholicism in Quebec Political history of Quebec Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals in Canada Activists for victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church Psychiatric false diagnosis History of human rights in Canada