Sylvio Albert Day, an orphan who spent three years illegally detained by Quebec authorities at the St. Jean de Dieu mental hospital, has died.
Day offered many chilling descriptions of his time at the hospital where he was forced to perform very difficult tasks, such as digging holes in the winter for the construction of an addition to the hospital.
But more chillingly, he reported that over a three months period he transported between 67 to 75 dead bodies of fellow orphans.
His job was to wash the dead bodies and prepare them to be sold to local universities for research.
Many other bodies were packed into cardboard boxes and buried outside the hospital, in a spot later known as the Pigsty Cemetery.
Many of the bodies had holes drilled into the skulls, he later noted.
One time he removed the cap on the head of one dead orphan and discovered to his shock that the brain had been removed.
Many of the other bodies had holes drilled into their skulls, which led Day to wonder what was happening with his fellow inmates.
He suspected that they were killed after being subject to illegal brain surgery.
Day was concerned. So he alerted psychiatrist-turned-father-of-Quebec's Bill 101 language law Dr. Camille Laurin about the holes in the heads.
Laurin was not happy and administered a drug on Day which left him woozy for several days, said Day.
Day also reported that someone named Pere Jean was a familiar sight at the hospital facility.
Day later identified Father Joseph as Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele, who had escaped from Germany after the war.
In spite of the inhumane internment Day suffered, he still managed to watch out for his friends and one fellow orphan named Pierre Samson, who now lives in Vancouver, said that once Day saved his life in the facility.
Day was finally released from custody at the insane asylum in 1964 after the Bedard Commission shined light on the illegal detentions of the Duplessis Orphans scandal.
The victims received a small sum of around $13,000 as compensation but their false psychiatric histories were never erased.
Day offered many chilling descriptions of his time at the hospital where he was forced to perform very difficult tasks, such as digging holes in the winter for the construction of an addition to the hospital.
But more chillingly, he reported that over a three months period he transported between 67 to 75 dead bodies of fellow orphans.
His job was to wash the dead bodies and prepare them to be sold to local universities for research.
Many other bodies were packed into cardboard boxes and buried outside the hospital, in a spot later known as the Pigsty Cemetery.
Many of the bodies had holes drilled into the skulls, he later noted.
One time he removed the cap on the head of one dead orphan and discovered to his shock that the brain had been removed.
Many of the other bodies had holes drilled into their skulls, which led Day to wonder what was happening with his fellow inmates.
He suspected that they were killed after being subject to illegal brain surgery.
Day was concerned. So he alerted psychiatrist-turned-father-of-Quebec's Bill 101 language law Dr. Camille Laurin about the holes in the heads.
Laurin was not happy and administered a drug on Day which left him woozy for several days, said Day.
Day also reported that someone named Pere Jean was a familiar sight at the hospital facility.
Day later identified Father Joseph as Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele, who had escaped from Germany after the war.
In spite of the inhumane internment Day suffered, he still managed to watch out for his friends and one fellow orphan named Pierre Samson, who now lives in Vancouver, said that once Day saved his life in the facility.
Day was finally released from custody at the insane asylum in 1964 after the Bedard Commission shined light on the illegal detentions of the Duplessis Orphans scandal.
The victims received a small sum of around $13,000 as compensation but their false psychiatric histories were never erased.