MK-Ultra was the name of a CIA
mind control program which was uncovered in 1975.
There was continued pressure put upon
anybody within the agency in connection with
trying to explain or understand brainwashing.
For over two decades, they conducted
illegal experiments on unwitting
human subjects, primarily from the U.S. and Canada.
It involved behaviour modification under
the influence of LSD and other hallucinogenics.
They would be given some medication.
An agent that would not harm the person
permanently but would incapacitate
them temporarily.
The CIA hoped to identify and develop
drugs and procedures that could be used
in interrogation situations.
The experiments would often be in conjunction
with torture techniques to break down the mind.
Torture included electroshock, sensory deprivation,
verbal and sexual abuse, which left
many victims permanently traumatised
and mentally disabled.
I lived through it, I lived through it, I lived through it.
John Lennon wasn't just a Beatle.
He was a powerful counter-culture hero.
His anti-war songs Give Peace a Chance
and Happy Christmas questioned the
legitimacy of the Vietnam War
and challenged the Nixon re-election
campaign of 1972.
It was only after his murder in 1980
was it revealed that the FBI spied
on Lennon for an entire year.
When it first started, I was followed in the car
and the phone was tapped.
And I think they wanted me to know, to scare me
and I was scared, paranoid.
This surveillance operation led to an
attempt to deport Lennon from the U.S. in 1972.
What do you think your chances are
remaining in this country?
Um, ninety-nine to one.
Prohibition was introduced to the U.S.
in 1920 to control the country's
alcohol consumption.
When illegal bootlegging operations
became a problem, the US government
took more drastic measures.
In the mid-20s, the government poisoned
the country's illegal liquor supply by
adding toxins, including highly
lethal methanol.
So what the government then looked
at was, can we do something
to this alcohol that makes it much
riskier to drink and use
that essentially as a chemical
enforcement of prohibition.
It wasn't until medical examiner Charles Norris
investigated the growing amount of
deaths that the truth was revealed.
By the end of prohibition in 1933,
the poison booze had killed over ten thousand Americans.
In the 1950s and 60s in Canada,
there was a campaign to eliminate
homosexuality from the civil service.
What Jimmy didn't know that Ralph was sick.
A sickness of the mind.
You see, Ralph was a homosexual.
Inventor Frank Robert Wake
became pivotal to this when
he developed the Fruit Machine.
It aimed to weed out homosexuals by
measuring the pupillary responses to visual stimuli.
It was assumed that heterosexuals and
homosexuals would react differently.
How many gay people do you know?
Why are you concerned about how many people?
You know, I’m dedicated, I work hard at my job.
The Fruit Machine had innumerable
variables that made it hardly
scientifically accurate.
Despite this, more than four hundred people
were expelled using this experiment
and nine thousand more were
kept on a file of suspects.
I was an excellent soldier.
I became homeless.
I couldn't come back to Ontario.
And then I found out the
only way that my family will accept
me is if I marry my old girlfriend.
And we had a family.
I was okay. But, I'm gay.