Church of Scientology has been investigating Lake Alice for almost half a century

Thursday, 17 June 2021

Director of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights Mike Ferris said their group had helped bring this to the public and authorities’ attention.

A group within the Church of Scientology has been fighting for children who were subjected to barbaric treatment at Lake Alice for almost half a century.

Citizens Commission on Human Rights is a private organisation founded in 1969 by the church. It is “a non-political, non-religious, non-profit organisation” dedicated to eradicating mental health abuse.

One of the first things the group did was tour some of New Zealand’s psychiatric hospitals, including Lake Alice in 1976.

It was involved with complaints about the treatment of children and made a formal complaint against the New Zealand government to the United Nations Committee Against Torture, which was upheld.

The group toured Lake Alice in 1976 and children approached members with allegations of torture and punishment.

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“I felt there was an over-riding atmosphere of helplessness in this place,” group member Bruce Gibson said.

He said word got around that they were there to help the patients, and on more than one occasion they were pulled to one side by children in Lake Alice.

One said they were locked up for misbehaving, and others said they got injections and electric shocks as punishment.

Gibson said the group was involved in the Magistrate Inquiry in 1977 of Niuean boy Hakeagapuletama Halo.

They investigated the authority in which electro-convulsive therapy was given, and said it was barbaric and should never be given without consent.

The magistrate did not accept the allegations that shock therapy was used as punishment, so the group protested outside Lake Alice to call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry.

“We all knew that this campaign to bring about human rights in mental health had only just begun. What we did not know was that the Citizens Commission on Human Rights would still be fighting for the victim survivors of Lake Alive for many years to come.

“Almost half a century later and still children have lacked adequate safeguards to protect them from serious abuse while in care.”

Victor Boyd said he started researching for the group when he worked in Whanganui, and met a young colleague who had been in Lake Alice’s child and adolescent unit.

Boyd said he interviewed him and other former patients to document what had taken place at Lake Alice.

A petition was presented to the government calling for a Commission of Inquiry, and was rejected because shock therapy was a matter of professional judgment.

They were involved in Grant Cameron’s class action, and after the government apology in 2001, tracked down more victims, obtained statements and helped some complain.

In 2015 the group went to Geneva to present a submission to the United Nations Committee Against Torture.

The New Zealand government did not follow up on the committee’s recommendations, so the group made a formal complaint.

Director of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights Michael Ferriss said they could not afford a lawyer and put the complaint together themselves.

It was upheld in 2019, among thousands of complaints the United Nations Committee Against Torture received each year.

“At last we felt that finally there was an official body who was not only listening to us, but had taken a very strong stance against the New Zealand government.”

The government replied and said it started a new police investigation and the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care would study Lake Alice.

“From the very first discovery in 1976 that children were being punished with electric shocks and drugs until now, our group has helped bring this to the attention of the New Zealand public and authorities.”