To pick up where I left off with my last post, I had just requested a second opinion on my initial assessment. Shortly after requesting and thinking my transfer to a new doctor was denied, I found out my wish had been granted.

I’m not going to go into too much detail regarding the follow up that got me released. Suffice it to say I wish to protect the identities of the doctors involved. I will go so far as to say they were both from nations familiar with the impact of deep racial divisions so they had broader understanding of where I was coming from. In fact, once they understood the context of what brought me into the care of the hospital, they made no attempt to dissuade me of my line of thinking. I was certified completely sane and rational and released the following Monday. This gave me a total of 144 hours of detainment, or 6 days, with no legal or psychiatric reason to have done so.

While these details were being sorted out, I was being introduced to provincial abuse of process on a massive scale. This forms the foundation of my argument for the courts. A new layer of oversight is needed to prevent these kinds of situations from arising for other Canadians. I fear the scale of abuse that already exists is so massive it beggars the mind and illustrates how subverted our legal system has become to ‘Crown schemes.’

Through my contacts with the Western Star, I’d arranged with them to have my picture taken to put on record that I was being detained against my will. They’d followed the day of my detainment and other previous news reports concerning my filing of genocide charges from the previous summer, and my years of community radio involvement, local entrepreneurship and agriculture research. On the 8th of April they ran their story about me being detained under the Mental Health Act, giving more of a context for my tweet than the RNC offered to the psychiatrist when I was taken in. They also mentioned that I didn’t have money for a lawyer and that I was still thinking I would get a pass to attend my Charter Challenge. This would later be proven wrong.

It’s interesting to be able to look back and see your own direct quotes.

“Because the government is always right and can never be wrong. Anybody that dissents with them are just going to be flagged as crazy and thrown into situations like this.”

This article would be picked up by the Telegram out in St. John’s and come to the awareness of Jennifer Curran, my current lawyer provided by mental health legal aide. She was quite interested in my case as I fit none of the requirements for a person to be remanded under the act. I have no mental disorder and no criminal charges were forthcoming. At the time of all this occurring, my certification papers still only had one signature on them.

Once we’d made contact and entered into a lawyer-client agreement, she informed me that she wanted to file an application of Habeas Corpus to have me brought before a local Supreme Court Justice to argue my detainment was unlawful. This would turn out to be the same Justice originally scheduled to hear my Charter Challenge. Small world. She also informed me that any discussion of sending me off for 30 day analysis was also unlawful as I hadn’t been charged with any crime. This isn’t Soviet Russia, despite what our Prime Minister or Premier seems to think.

So by Wednesday afternoon, I’d met with my new doctor and had our first discussion. I’d been contacted by a lawyer who wanted to represent me and I had been photographed with my disheveled beard in all it’s glory for the front page of the Western Star the following day.

At this point, I still hoped I would be able to attend my Charter Challenge, but questions were beginning to crop up. My doctor was willing to issue a pass to allow me to attend my Supreme Court proceedings, but there was a requirement of an escort to and from the Courthouse. As I hadn’t been charged by the RNC, they had no authority to bring me before the Courts. The Hospital also shrugged their shoulders as they had no legal reason to do so either. When I’d be originally told that a pass could be issued, they’d assumed I was a defendant, not a plaintiff. With no option to proceed, I called my lawyer.

Jennifer informed me that she was trying to get the Application of Habeas Corpus filed for the following day, April 9th, but had to jump through a few hoops. I gave her permission to apologize to the Justice for being unable to attend and requested an opportunity to reschedule.

Later on in the evening, the situation would become even stranger. While sitting with Misha and my best friend Ben during evening visiting hours, one of the night nurses brought me in an updated copy of my certification papers. Remember, for the whole day I’d been walking around with my admitting papers with only one signature. I’d also been transferred to a doctor that wasn’t as prejudiced by the situation due to the original RNC presence. I had a lawyer trying to get me before a Supreme Court Justice. But suddenly… there were two signatures on my certification papers.

Two signatures. Thistle and Talpur. Signed and dated five minutes apart from the first night I’d been admitted. Now, unlike a patient brought in for a simple 72 hour observation, I had been certified insane by two separate doctors after a total of five and a half minutes of analysis. No diagnosis, no speculations on a diagnosis, just certified insane. The first signature was required to keep me under observation for 72 hours. The second left me legally certified insane under the Mental Health Care Act and remanded as a ward of the State for further observation. The nurses told me they’d never seen anything like it. This would later be used to deny the application for Habeas Corpus. The Justice’s hands would now be tied by the second signature into a system of Crown schemes and common law precedence.

Obviously, someone wanted me kept under lock and key for a while.

I would spent the second night of my detainment once again sleeping fitfully. Sleep apnea is a harsh disability when you have no way to remedy it. During my six sleeps on the ward, I probably averaged four hours a night. I was still ok at this point. The physiological effects didn’t begin to pile up until Saturday.

That concludes Day 2 of My Life of Certified Insanity. Day 3&4 should be available before the weekend.