[Fwd: PACT Protests"ACT"]
Graeme Bacque (gbacque@idirect.com)
Fri, 30 Oct 1998 17:30:21 -0500
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: PACT Protests"ACT"
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 16:56:00 -0500
From: dweitz@interlog.com (Don Weitz)
To: gbacque@idirect.com
P.A.C.T. Protests Against Ontario's Fascist "ACT"
Toronto - October 30, 1998
Around 1-2 pm today, five of us survivor-resisters--all members of
People Against Coercive Treatment (P.A.C.T.)--held a brief protest
against "Assertive Community Treatment Teams" (ACT).in front of the
Delta
Chelsea Hotel in downtown Toronto. Roughly 300 "mental health
professionals" and "community outreach" workers across Ontario were
attending 1-day workshops titled "Implementing Assertive Community
Treatment (ACT) in Ontario: Translating the Model into Practice". It was
organized and led by shrinks, psychiatric nurses and social workers from
St. Michaels' Hospital and the University of Toronto's Psychiatry
Department. These "mental health" cops came to learn how to impose and
increase forced drugging and involuntary outpatient committal on
thousands of "seriously mentally ill" and homeless citizens in the
community who refuse their psychopoisons ("medication") and other
"treatment".
Shortly after 1, we started handing out copies of anti-ACT
literature (e.g., P.A.C.T.'s powerful educational package
"JUSTICE-RIGHTS-FREEDOM DENIED" and the outstanding critique "The
Trouble With PACT: Questioning the Increasing Use of Assertive Community
Treatment Teams in Community Mental Health" by Patricia Spindel & Jo
Anne Nugent. After only a few minutes, the hotel security guards
hassled us, threatening to arrest
Graeme and myself with "trespass" if we refused to move off their
"private property". Hell, we were on the sidewalk, didn't know the
hotel owns it, and never blocked the front doors. (Apparently, the Delta
Chelsea, the
Convention Centre and big hotels in Toronto own a good chunk of sidewalk
fronting their posh entrances..) After some minutes of arguing with the
hotel's security, we reluctantly left the front entrance saying we'd be
back after consulting with our lawyer and then left. Mike called the
OCAP office and found out the lawyer wasn't sure about ownership. So we
decided to back off - for now.
While all this was happening, "AJ" and Jennifer (two P.A.C.T.
members) scored a coup by casually walking unnoticed through the front
doors carrying and distributing about 200 copies of our anti-ACT
literature
into the workshops. "AJ" also prominently displayed some copies on the
luncheon table.
A couple community-housing workers from Hamilton came up to us and
offered us support which helped our sagging morale. One lent AJ her
workshop badge which helped her get into the workshop and luncheon
sites.
As we were leaving, Barry Martin (head of the Clarke Institute of
Psychiatry's notorious "ECT Unit",) wanted to shake my hands. I got
angry and loudly refused telling him ,"I don't shake hands with shock
doctors
who damage people's brains." He walked away with a condescending smirk I
would have loved to wipe off with my fist.
The media didn't show, mainly because of short notice. Can't
really blame them since I faxed them only 12 hours earlier, a few hours
after we decided to protest. Still, we got our anti-ACT/antipsychiatry
messages
through to many "mental health" workers which is all we really wanted to
do.
Now, more shrinks and government officials know there's growing
opposition to forced drugging and outpatient committal in Toronto. We
hope resistance to "ACT" spreads across Ontario damn soon before the
right-wing Ontario government passes a "community treatment
order"/forced drugging law this year or next. We have lots of hard work
to do to defeat this new wave of psychiatric-government assault on psych
survivors, homeless and poor people. We're gonna fight this psychiatric
fascism masquerading as
"community treatment", and never never give up!
- Don Weitz