Montreal psychiatric hospital settles suit, to pay $1M to mistreated patients

Montreal's Philippe Pinel Institute has agreed to pay $1 million in damages to be shared among more than 200 patients who said they were treated like criminals during their stay at the mental hospital between 1999 and 2002.

A former patient launched a class-action lawsuit after he was admitted to Pinel in 2001. Hospital employees labelled him as violent, and they allegedly mistreated him during his transfer to another hospital.

The former patient claimed he was shackled and strip-searched like a criminal, even though he hadn't been charged with any offence. He was never identified.

As many as 600 other former patients claimed to have been subjected to similar treatment, but, in accepting the lawsuit in 2003, the Quebec Superior Court ruled it would apply to about 230 patients.

The lawsuit was led by a mental health advocacy group, L'En-Droit de Laval. It was confirmed by both sides in February that the $1-million out of court agreement had been reached, and it was ratified by Judge Marc de Wever on Wednesday.

"It's a double victory for us because Institute Pinel recognizes their mistake about the treatment. They treated the people like criminals — even people who may be sick or strange or marginal get rights," said Michel Labelle, a spokesman for the group.