A group of Indigenous women in Montreal, Canada, are contemplating halting construction at the site of a former hospital, believing it may reveal the truth about what happened to their missing children following experiments conducted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency nearly half a century ago.

These women have been striving for two years to delay the construction project being undertaken by McGill University and the Quebec government, according to the French press agency.

The activists rely on archives and testimonies indicating that the site contains unmarked graves of children who were at the Royal Victoria Hospital and the Allan Memorial Institute, a neighboring psychiatric hospital, in the 1950s and 1960s. Behind the faded old walls of the institute, the CIA funded a program codenamed "MKUltra."

During the Cold War, the program aimed to develop techniques and drugs for effectively brainwashing people.

Experiments were conducted in Britain, Canada, and the United States on individuals, including Indigenous children in Montreal, who were subjected to electric shocks, hallucinogenic drugs, and sensory deprivation.

85-year-old Kahentinthá, a Mohawk resident of Kahnawake southwest of Montreal and a leading figure in the Indigenous rights movement, traveled to Britain and the United States to denounce colonialism, viewing this struggle as "the most important thing in her life."

She stated, "We want to know why they did this and who will be held accountable."

Archaeological Works

In the fall of 2022, the activists obtained a court order to suspend construction of a new campus and research center on the site, a project costing 870 million Canadian dollars (643 million U.S. dollars).

Activist Kweetyio (52) expressed that the women in the group insist on advocating for the case themselves without lawyers; "because in our ways, no one speaks on our behalf."

Last summer, trained dogs and probes were brought in to search the dilapidated buildings on the vast property. Teams were able to identify three locations worthy of excavation.

However, according to McGill and the Quebec government's infrastructure agency, "no human remains were found."

The Mohawk mothers accuse the university and the government’s infrastructure agency of violating an agreement by selecting archaeologists who conducted the search before completing their mission too early.

Philippe Bleau, an anthropologist collaborating with the mothers, stated, "They gave themselves the authority to lead an investigation into crimes that their employees may have committed in the past."

Despite the rejection of the appeal filed by the mothers earlier this month, they pledged to continue the fight.

Kweetyio said, "People need to know the history so that it doesn't repeat itself."

Generations of Indigenous children were sent to residential schools where they were stripped of their language, culture, and identity, in what was deemed in a Truth and Reconciliation report in 2015

where, between 1831 and 1996, 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their homes and placed in 139 of those schools, with a few thousand returned to their communities.