The Provincial Training School in Red Deer, Alberta. Alberta Public Archives
The Provincial Training School (PTS) for what was then termed 'Mental Defectives' in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada operated as an institution for mentally disabled children and adults between 1923 and 1977, at which time it was renamed the Michener Centre.[1] It aimed to provide care and training to facilitate the integration of individuals with intellectual disabilities into their communities. While today it houses a service for persons with developmental disabilities, the nearly one-century-old facility is preceded by a diverse history, marked by eugenic practices like involuntary sterilization.
Exterior view of Alberta Ladies College, Red Deer, Alberta, and adjacent grounds. 1912. University of Alberta Libraries Historical Postcard Collection.
The three-storey building, which once housed the Provincial Training School, has undergone many administrative changes since its construction in 1913.[2] Located on the Michener hill in the city of Red Deer, Alberta,[3] it originally housed the Alberta Ladies' College of Red Deer[4] as one of Western Canada's finest residential college buildings at the time. In 1916, the provincial government converted the college into a psychiatric hospital for shell-shocked soldiers.[4] It was not until 1923 that the facility saw the inception of the Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives, which would serve as a care facility for mentally disabled people until 1973. Today, it functions as Alberta Health Services Administration Building the rest of the buildings function as PDD Michener Services residential care facility for persons with developmental disabilities and currently has 123 residents.[5]
Aims and purpose of PTS
In 1923, the Provincial Training School (PTS) was conceived as a residential school, aiming to enable the "academic, vocational and personal development of retarded children and young adults".[6] It allowed developmentally disabled children to live apart from psychiatrically diagnosed children, and provided the parents of these children respite of the daily struggles of raising children with special needs. Before the opening of the PTS, Alberta's mentally disabled children that were not living with their families were usually grouped with psychiatric patients in care facilities as far away as Brandon, Manitoba.[7] At its founding, the PTS was viewed as a progressive step for Canadians because it focused on segregating the "mentally retarded from the mentally ill,"[8] and was claimed to support the shift "from incarceration to education".[9] In due time, the PTS expanded its function to include occupational therapy and vocational training, which was meant to serve as stepping-stones for the residents' integration into the larger community. In the 1950s, the PTS claimed to centre its efforts on "increasing the trainee's independence," and in the 1960s, on "resident training".[10] The view of the school as "humane, well run, evolving as attitudes towards feeble-mindedness evolved," [11] was upheld by Albertans throughout the span of its operation. However, rising population figures indicated that most residents of the PTS did not, in fact, return to their communities.[10] To the greater Red Deer community, the PTS served as its chief employer and enriched the local community with its own farm and opulent gardens. The school featured state-of-the-art classrooms, a chain of dormitories, and even a separate hospital. This idealistic establishment appealed to even Alberta's most prestigious families, including ex-Premier of Alberta, Ernest Manning, who enrolled his eldest son, Keith, at the school.[12]
Sexual sterilization
After the passing of the Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta (SSAA) in 1928, the Provincial Training School (PTS) oversaw and performed the sterilizations of over 2,800 persons to improve society by preventing the genetic transmission of undesirable traits [13] as well as to protect unfit individuals from the burdens of parenthood.[14] Other Albertan facilities that also performed similar procedures were the Alberta Hospital in Ponoka and the Oliver Mental Hospital in Edmonton.
To assess persons' eligibility for sterilization, the Alberta government created the Alberta Eugenics Board, headed by University of Alberta psychologist, John M. MacEachran, one year after the enactment of the SSAA.[12] Board members persistently searched the province for prospective subjects, and thus frequently found themselves visiting the PTS. Whether or not an individual was suited for sterilization was decided by a panel of 4 people (2 medical professionals and 2 laypeople13), formed by the Alberta Eugenics Board, who presented patients with a single psychological test.[15] Answers to this informal, interview-style test, including questions, such as, "At what age does a child begin to walk?," and, "How do you like it here?",[16] guided the Board's 10-minute review of each case.[17] Patients rarely had knowledge of the true purpose of the meetings; even on the day of their surgery, they were often only told that their appendix would be removed.[16] Most would not discover what had been done to them at the PTS until years after leaving the school and, for some, the news came after several unsuccessful attempts to conceive.[16] Initially, the procedure required consent from the patient or from a parent or guardian, but this pre-requisite was repeatedly ignored after 1937.[15] Sometimes, authorization forms, required for surgeries to be carried out, were signed by officials before any assessments had been conducted.[18]
The fact that only a handful of the nearly 900 cases presented to the Eugenics Board by Leonard Jan Le Vann, medical superintendent of the PTS, were rejected has raised questions about the integrity of the assessments and decision-makers alike.[12] Because of the Board's enduring trust in the superintendent's judgement, many individuals who did not meet the formal criteria for sterilization were nonetheless rendered infertile. Among those targeted were children with both subpar IQs (<70) and IQs highly exceeding the upper limit of 703, those with physical or mental disorders and those ailed by heritable disease. Other traits targeted by the eugenic procedure were ethnic minority and poverty, as well as criminal behaviour, alcoholism and promiscuity.[19] Women, eastern European immigrants, First Nations people, and Catholics represented a disproportionate number of those sterilized at the PTS.[17] The Eugenics Board never stopped to question the individuals' backgrounds or why Le Vann fought for their sterilization.[20] As far as policy -makers and -enforcers were concerned, all of these groups had one thing in common: they were "a menace to society".[17]
L. J. Le Vann presented an even more peculiar type of case to the Board, which ultimately approved it 30 times.[20] In his private research, Le Vann studied spermatogenesis in the testicles of boys with Down's syndrome. To supply his research with tissue samples, the medical director ordered not only vasectomies but also orchidectomies of males with Down's syndrome.[21] This practice was carried out although it was already known within the medical community at the time that males with Trisomy 21 are sterile. Also, the Board which consented the procedure included Margaret Thompson, one of the leading medical geneticist in Canada at the time.[21]
Life at the PTS
While the name of the facility implies a school for 'mental defectives', many of those admitted to the Provincial Training School (PTS) were orphaned or simply unwanted by their families. Consequently, many admitted students were socially awkward as a result of deficiencies in certain social skills.[17] Often, high-functioning children stemming from abrasive families were admitted due to misdiagnosis.[19] Furthermore, such unnecessary admissions were exacerbated by the school's non-standardized admissions procedures, including mandatory IQ tests that were insensitive to some patients' abusive upbringing or other relevant socio-economic factors.[22]
In the school, residents were divided among different wards corresponding to 'hierarchies of disability'.[23] The more capable children were quickly put to work by the school's superintendent, L. J. Le Vann. 'High-grade' teenage girls scrubbed floors, prepared meals, and dressed the severely disabled, while the boys tended to farmland and milked cows.[20] A former resident, Donald Passey, personally recalled the physical disciplining by staff members at the school. He was once slapped and punched while held up against the wall; even severely impaired children sometimes suffered physical abuse.[20] Glen Sinclair, also an ex-student at the PTS, described his role at the school as the subject of constant observation. He and his dorm-mates were denied all privacy and prohibited any outside access without consent - even the windows only opened six inches wide3. Any attempts at rebellion such as refusal to eat, sleep, wake or work, or even sexual expression, resulted in brutal punishment. This included corporeal beatings, incarceration in Time-Out Rooms, and even enrolment in drug experiments with potent tranquilizers, such as Phenobarbital, chlorpromazine, and haloperidol.[24] L. J. Le Vann often threatened misbehaviour with sterilization,[12] a procedure which soon became customary at the school's hospital. While children were punished for even slight expression of sexuality, the PTS nevertheless accommodated the hetero- and homosexual abuse of its students by its staff members.[24]
Leilani Muir was a resident at PTS and was sterilized, without her consent, in 1959. In 1996, she won a lawsuit against the province of Alberta for wrongfully admitting her and sterilizing her against her will, and that her life after PTS has proven her ability to live a normal functioning life in the larger society . The province's defence, Crown lawyer William Olthius, argued, however, that Muir's ability to "make it" since leaving the PTS is a sign of the school's "appropriate and high-quality curriculum of academic schooling, vocational training and life skills."[25] Muir, however, claimed that she was poorly educated during her time at the PTS.[25]
Time-out rooms
As a means of controlling its residents, the Provincial Training School (PTS) utilized much dreaded Time-Out Rooms. Each of the dormitories at the PTS featured a room in the direct line of sight of staff and residents.[26] Bare, concrete walls and heavy, locked doors, with only a tiny orifice for food delivery, enclosed the empty cellars.[26] The Rooms contained one-way mirrors, through which the incarcerated individual could be monitored by both staff and residents, and sometimes a small window. Lacking access to a proper toilet, residents in time-out rooms were forced to relieve themselves on the floor where a drain was installed.[27] Inmates were usually stripped naked during their time in the time-out rooms to avert their potential self-harm.[28] Only at night would a mattress be laid on the ground for inmates to rest on. Some were debilitated with straitjackets.[29]
Most frequently, a resident would land in a Time-Out Room after an unsuccessful attempt to flee the school, at which time staff ensured public awareness through wailing sirens and intrusive ward searches.[30] The dehumanizing effect of the Time-Out Rooms allowed staff to handle residents with derogatory and senseless conduct, ultimately depriving them of their human rights and dignity.[30] Time-Out Rooms served as a powerful method of "physical and psychological, reactive and proactive control".[30]
Management and staff
From 1949 until 1974, American-born Leonard Jan Le Vann was the medical superintendent of the Provincial Training School (PTS). Upon arriving at the school, Le Vann took on positions both in surgery and psychiatry, which enabled him to assess students as well as perform operations when necessary.[21] Past PTS staff recalled his meticulous attention to detail, especially in delegating their tasks. Le Vann ordered nurses to maintain extensive reports on everything from children's bowel movements to their sexual interests.[21] He also commanded a very strict work environment in which no personnel spoke to their supervisors, unless spoken to.[20] During the 1960s, Le Vann "ran the institution almost...like a Gestapo," a former PTS psychologist remembers.[20] It was later revealed that Le Vann had kept several significant secrets. In 1995, 8 years after his death, it was found that the medical director never actually obtained accreditation to practice psychiatry. His first wife also discovered that, in order to disguise his Jewish descent, the man had undergone a name-change at a young age.[20]
The PTS witnessed a drastic increase (500%) in the number of residents between its initiation in 1923 and 1959, at which time the school housed around 1,400 children.[20] As oversight of the school became obscured, the PTS sought to expand its employee base. However, because most psychologists dreaded working in a mental institution, the PTS's efforts to recruit qualified staff faced numerous shortcomings.[20] It did not help that the school was situated in Red Deer, a prairie town of around 30, 000, where the number of skilled applicants was minuscule. In these times of desperation, Le Vann once hired someone with no professional experience to fill the position of head psychologist. This person was responsible for the IQ tests that were part of the assessment protocol for admission to the school.[12] The resulting, arbitrary procedure caused numerous able-minded children to be admitted to the school.[31] An ex-employee of the PTS revealed, "Your qualification was grade twelve and they hired just about anybody, as long as they didn't have a criminal record". Le Vann even went so far as to endorse admitting high-functioning children in order to exploit their abilities as forced labour.[20]
End of Michener
In 2013 the Provincial Government announced the closing of the Michener Centre due to provincial budget constraints. The government intends to phase the Centre out by gradually moving residents into other private or not-for-profit facilities on up to its scheduled completion and final closing date in April 2014.[32] Despite its history, the closing of Michener Centre has become very controversial in that current public perception of the centre is quite positive due to its more recent history of providing quality care for residents with very severe psychological and developmental needs.[5]
Related Research Articles
The Eugenics Board of North Carolina (EBNC) was a State Board of the U.S. state of North Carolina formed in July 1933 by the North Carolina State Legislature by the passage of House Bill 1013, entitled "An Act to Amend Chapter 34 of the Public Laws of 1929 of North Carolina Relating to the Sterilization of Persons Mentally Defective". This Bill formally repealed a 1929 law, which had been ruled as unconstitutional by the North Carolina Supreme Court earlier in the year.
Emily Murphy was a Canadian women's rights activist and author. In 1916, she became the first female magistrate in Canada and in the British Empire. She is best known for her contributions to Canadian feminism, specifically to the question of whether women were "persons" under Canadian law.
Compulsory sterilization, also known as forced or coerced sterilization, is a government-mandated program to involuntarily sterilize a specific group of people. Sterilization removes a person's capacity to reproduce, and is usually done through surgical procedures. Several countries implemented sterilization programs in the early 20th century. Although such programs have been made illegal in most countries of the world, instances of forced or coerced sterilizations persist.
The Alberta Report was a conservative weekly newsmagazine based in Edmonton. It was founded and edited by Ted Byfield, and later run by his son, Link Byfield. It ceased publication in 2003.
In 1928, the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada, enacted the Sexual Sterilization Act. The Act, drafted to protect the gene pool, allowed for sterilization of mentally disabled people in order to prevent the transmission of traits to offspring deemed undesirable.
John Malcolm MacEachran was a Canadian philosopher and psychologist, whose most notable credentials involved the development of the Psychology and Philosophy Department at the University of Alberta. He was a co-founder of the Canadian Psychological Association and the appointed Chairman of the Alberta Eugenics Board which was responsible for approving the sterilization of thousands of Albertans, hundreds of which were without consent.
The Alberta Eugenics Board was an agency created by the Alberta government in 1928 that attempted to impose sterilization on a disabled subset of its population, in accordance with the principles of eugenics. It remained active until 1972, when it was dissolved.
Leilani Marietta (O'Malley) Muir, previously named Leilani Marie Scorah, was the first person to file a successful lawsuit against the Alberta government for wrongful sterilization under the Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta. Her case led to the initiation of several other class action lawsuits against the province for wrongful sterilization. Muir's advocacy shed light on eugenics, institutionalisation, human rights for persons with a disability, and self-advocacy.
The Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH) is a large and long serving hospital in the Canadian province of Alberta. Operated by Alberta Health Services and located north of Edmonton's downtown core, the Royal Alexandra serves a diverse community stretching from Downtown Edmonton to western and northern Canada. The total catchment area for the RAH is equivalent to 1/3 of Canada's land mass, stretching north from Downtown Edmonton to enpass both the Northwest Territories and Yukon territory, and stretching as far west as British Columbia's pacific coast.
The 6th Alberta Legislative Assembly was in session from February 10, 1927, to May 10, 1930, with the membership of the assembly determined by the results of the 1926 Alberta general election held on June 28, 1926. The Legislature officially resumed on February 10, 1927, and continued until the fourth session was prorogued on April 3, 1930, and dissolved on May 10, 1930, prior to the 1930 Alberta general election.
Compulsory sterilization in Canada has a documented history in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia. It is still ongoing as in 2017, sixty Indigenous women in Saskatchewan sued the provincial government, claiming they had been forced to accept sterilization before seeing their newborn babies. In June 2021, the Standing Committee on Human Rights in Canada found that compulsory sterilization is ongoing in Canada and its extent has been underestimated.
Eugenics, the set of beliefs and practices which aims at improving the genetic quality of the human population, played a significant role in the history and culture of the United States from the late 19th century into the mid-20th century. The cause became increasingly promoted by intellectuals of the Progressive Era.
Leonard Jan Le Vann was the medical superintendent at the Alberta Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives from 1949 to 1974. Although he was born and raised in the United States, Le Vann trained as a physician in Scotland. Throughout his career Le Vann wrote many articles, most of which were published during his 25-year career at the Provincial Training School, covering a broad range of topics including alcoholism, schizophrenia and experimental treatments of antipsychotic drugs. In 1974 Le Vann resigned from the training center after the Government of Alberta repealed the Sexual Sterilization Act. Concerns over how he ran the school were part of the Leilani Muir trial that took place in 1995. Although Le Vann was already deceased at the time of the trial, his name was brought to the court's attention on many occasions.
Eugenics in California is a notable part of eugenics in the United States. As an early leading force in the field of eugenics, California became the third state in the United States to enact a sterilization law. By 1921, California had accounted for 80% of sterilizations nationwide. This continued until the Civil Rights Movement, when widespread critiques against society's "total institutions" dismantled popular acceptance for the state's forced sterilizations. There were an estimated 20,000 forced sterilizations in California between 1909 and 1979; however, that number may be an underestimation. In 2021, California enacted a reparations program to compensate the hundreds of still living victims from its eugenics program.
The Sterilization of Leilani Muir is a 1996 documentary directed by Glynis Whiting about the life and times of Leilani Muir, the first person to file a lawsuit against the Alberta provincial government for wrongful sterilization under the Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta.
The Living Archives on Eugenics in Western Canada (LAE) is a major research project, led by philosophy Professor Robert Wilson of the University of Alberta. The LAE seeks to investigate and understand the many aspects of the eugenics movement in western Canada. The project began in 2009 and is funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Susan Margaret Rogers Gunn was a Canadian activist. Gunn was the third president of the United Farm Women of Alberta (UFWA), following the presidencies of Irene Parlby (1916-1920) and Marion Sears (1920–24), and served in that role from 1924 to 1929. She was a noted "country life advocate" and detested cities.
During the era of National Socialism in Germany the discrimination towards the "Hereditarly Diseased" was at its peak. Racial hygiene was a big concern and the intent to fix it made Germany take extreme measures. People who were deaf and hard-of-hearing and all disabled people were considered a "social burden". Adolf Hitler and many others feared that deafness was a hereditary gene that could be passed on from mother or father to the child. Germany's main solution to decrease the numbers was through sterilization.
Sterilization of Latinas has been practiced in the United States on women of different Latin American identities, including those from Puerto Rico and Mexico. There is a significant history of such sterilization practices being conducted involuntarily, in a coerced or forced manner, as well as in more subtle forms such as that of constrained choice. Forced sterilization was permissible by multiple states throughout various periods in the 20th century. Issues of state sterilization have persisted as recently as September 2020. Some sources credit the practice to theories of racial eugenics.
Eugenics was practiced in about 33 different states. Oregon was one of the many states that implemented eugenics programs and laws. This affected a number of different groups that were marginalized for being "unfit" and often were subject to forced sterilization.
↑ Malacrida, Claudia (2005). "Discipline and Dehuminazation in a total institution: Institutional Survivors' Descriptions of Time-Out Rooms". Disability & Society. 20 (5): 523–537. doi:10.1080/09687590500156238. S2CID145166196.
1 2 3 4 Henton, Darcy (February 11, 1996). "Faith in eugenics ran deep in Alberta: New findings reveal sterilization policy was extensive and applied with zeal". Toronto Star.
1 2 Feschuk, Scott (June 13, 1995). "Woman suing province over forced sterilization Law allowed government to practice selective breeding". The Globe and Mail.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
