🐇 Project MKUltra was a project run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It began in 1953 and involved secret experiments on mind control, interrogation, and behavior modification, often using drugs such as Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).
Canadian university involved
The most famous Canadian site connected to MKUltra research was McGill University in Montreal, specifically the Allan Memorial Institute, a psychiatric hospital affiliated with McGill.
The experiments there were led by psychiatrist Donald Ewen Cameron.
What happened there
Cameron ran controversial experiments in the 1950s–1960s that included:
Extremely high doses of LSD
Electroconvulsive therapy at intensities far beyond normal treatment
Long periods of drug-induced sleep
“Psychic driving” — repeatedly playing recorded messages to patients while they were sedated
Many patients were not informed about the real nature of the experiments and had entered the hospital for relatively routine psychiatric treatment.
CIA involvement
The CIA funded Cameron’s work covertly through front organizations, mainly the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, which disguised the intelligence connection.
Later revelations
The program became public during the Church Committee investigations in the United States.
Afterward:
Several Canadian victims sued the CIA and the U.S. government.
Some eventually received financial settlements in the 1980s and 1990s.
Important note
Not every experiment Cameron conducted was officially listed as MKUltra subprojects, but CIA funding is well documented, and the Allan Memorial Institute is widely cited as one of the most prominent non-U.S. locations linked to MKUltra research.