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The Duplessis orphans: children classified as psychiatric patients
A 1960s commission found about one-third of patients held under false diagnoses; labels remained on records; Quebec apologies 1999 and 2001; compensation $10,000 + $1,000 per year confined (2001), $26 million (2006), $15,000 each to 1,270 more (2007); Church declined…
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What the record says
Worldwide register by region (Batch 2) · Batch 2
- Country / period
- Quebec, 1935–1964
- Mechanism
- False diagnosis of children as mentally deficient to convert orphanages into subsidized psychiatric hospitals; thousands confined
- What is documented
- A 1960s commission found about one-third of patients held under false diagnoses; labels remained on records; Quebec apologies 1999 and 2001; compensation $10,000 + $1,000 per year confined (2001), $26 million (2006), $15,000 each to 1,270 more (2007); Church declined to apologize
- Finding or status
- OFFICIAL (apology and compensation); Ombudsman Jacoby's 1999 criticism (Canadian Encyclopedia; historyofrights.ca; CBC 1999)
- Contrary evidence / limits
- Motive was fiscal, not silencing; but false psychiatric labels discredited survivors' later testimony for decades (the Archbishop demanded case-by-case proof)
- Label
- VERIFIED
Linked patterns
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Linked corrections
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Reference and provenance
1935-CA-QC-DUPLESSIS