Category: Media Theory

When Day 2 of my time on the 4th Floor ward started out, I had been certified by a single signature of an ER doctor. It was supported by a five minute discussion with a psychiatrist who wanted to observe me for a month. I would later find out she has a hearing problem.

I made my first mistake while looking for breakfast. Not realizing the individualized menu system in place, I thought all meals were the same as the trays were laid out haphazardly on the tables. I didn’t spot the name of a fellow inmate until after I’d eaten most of the meal. I ended up swapping the name tag for my meal with his, but it was still strange that there wasn’t even a discussion about the meals or menus. I had to learn about the process from Red Sonya.

Red Sonya is a prime example of how underfunded the mental health care system is in Newfoundland and Labrador. She suffers from bouts of confusion due to difficulty in regulating her insulin, but due to a lack of funding for specialized needs she gets thrown into the 4th floor ward with possible violent offenders.

After breakfast I made a point of inquiring with the nurses which doctor I would be seeing for my follow up assessment. When I was told I would be seeing Dr. Talpur, the same slightly deaf tiny hindu woman so frightened by RNC presence she wanted to keep me under observation for a month, I was a little surprised. I’d spoken to her last night, why would she now be offering the second opinion? This was fishy. The first signing doctor, Thistle, could technically say he’d seen me. We’d been in the room together. He shook my hand and we chatted for a brief moment. He was also in the room in the presence of police who could witness that he’d seen me. However, I felt that his signature on that original assessment was supported by Dr. Talpur’s 5 minute assessment, so this really wasn’t a fair baseline as her impartiality had already been affected. She’d already been in the presence of armed men who’d brought in a man with a long beard and a stack of legal documents. The RNC were presenting her with a copy of my tweet, blown up to fill a full sheet of paper. I shit you not. That’s how they do it. One tweet fills a single page. Poor Mr. Dunphy. Such small words on a cell phone, blown up and magnified to such a huge size. I can only imagine how confusing that must have been.

I think the comparison to the Ottawa Shooter was influenced mostly by the police presence and the beard. I wasn’t raving or incoherent. I peacefully submitted to the entire process. If I had been clean shaven, she wouldn’t have given that extreme of a comparison much of a second thought. I had a stack of legal documents that explained my reason for being there. It provided context. But when presented with slice of my twitter history, my beard, and my arabic last name, she decided I was planning on blowing something up. Instead, I’m just an outspoken activist engaging in legal action against a government that has committed crimes against humanity. I’m also into the idea of building cheap advanced organic farms to feed people. Nothing in that plan should scare anyone except those who hate freedom and independence.

Just for clarity, I never recanted any of the words I uttered on Twitter during my time at WMRH. I still think Premier Davis is an abject coward who is threatening the economic stability of the province with his lack of foresight and inability to deal with the complexities of a changing world. His vision for Newfoundland became evident when he released his pro-police state RNC recruitment video last fall. He’s militaristic and Newfoundland should have no place in it for his brand of intimidation. It threatens families, which form the beating heart of this island. Richard Squires did it less than 100 years ago and it seems that Premier Davis is poised to make the same mistake.

For further clarity, and to assure my point on context is understood, I believe that the Confederation of Canada must be brought down to strip power from the federal government. Through their actions they’ve incited genocide abroad and are responsible for crimes against humanity. They should be arrested, face trial and if found guilty, be executed for their crimes. It is not a threat. It is an insult aimed at Premier Davis combined with a demand for a free and democratic society that embraces true justice. It was misinterpreted in the same manner as Mr. Dunphy’s tweet, out of its organic context.

However, this tweet was different from the one that the RCMP arrested and released me for with an order to appear before a judge. That one was an idle threat I’ll discuss later. Different tweet, different context, different aspect of free speech. I am scheduled to appear before a judge of a lower court in June to discuss the matter. I have no interest in securing legal aide on the matter as I’m comfortable preparing my own case and have an established lawful intention that goes back most of a year in a well documented process.

To get back to Premier Davis’ gutless cowardice, he has our province drowning in so much oil he’s stealing from our future to keep this leaky oil tanker afloat. We can’t bail the political class out anymore. They’re leeches who just want political power and authority. They’ve got no real ideas on how to right their ship because politicians never do. They’re just stealing from Peter to pay Paul. Literally. Let their ship sink.

Newfoundland and Labrador has a bright future, but all in resources that are currently under utilized because educated people are being completely ignored by these Conservative governments. Only 20 percent of the known arable land on the Island is currently producing food. Why are we paying so much to import tiny produce when we could supply all of our own cheaper and provide worthwhile jobs to locals?

Did you know there was a experimental greenhouse in Gander that provided fresh vegetables for 500 US soldiers year round? All the fresh produce they needed was provided by this one greenhouse. Imagine 1000 of these providing all the fresh produce for every family on the island. All organic. Never a worry about ferry service being unable to deliver or poor quality produce. Build them underground, use geothermal heating and tie them into Muskrat Falls to provide power for LED grow lights and Newfoundland and Labrador will never have to import fresh produce again. Ever. Might take ten years to build them all, but why wait? We could break ground on the first of them this summer if this government didn’t have its head jammed so far up its own oil-filled arsehole.

Other resources that are going underutilized are our shellfish wastes. Did you know that crab, lobster and shrimp are rich sources of chitin? Chitin is the amazingly versatile organic compound that will underpin the future for a number of fields. It is also the foundation of my research with insects. Want to know an excellent source of renewable and perfectly biodegradable bioplastic to replace polluting oil-based plastics? Chitin. Want to know how to keep produce from spoiling longer organically? Chitin. Want advanced bandages that speed wound healing? Chitin. Want to use less pesticides to control insects or fungus on crops? Chitin. Bigger flowers with brighter blooms? Chitin. Forget graphene, graphane and carbon nanotubes, one of the most important molecules for the future of our planet is chitin and its derivatives. Newfoundland currently just throws the majority of it away.

The other groups of molecules that Newfoundland has in a unique abundance are dihalogenated acetates based on chlorine, bromine and iodine. These are present in seaweeds. The results of the research I’ve been engaged in since 2007 show that they are an unrecognized vitamin for promoting proper mitochondrial function. I have a hypothesis that these compounds played a key role in the early evolution of multicellular life. They already have a 30+ year history of use in treating metabolic disorders. They were also shown to have a broad spectrum effect on triggering apoptosis in cancerous cells (2007), provided normoxic conditions are present (2010). Their unique, simple and compact shape puts them among the strongest organic molecules capable of reducing oxidative stress. Oxidative stress builds up over time and results in cellular exhaustion through mitochondrial dysfunction. Health Canada continues to claim these compounds are synthetic, despite research from the 60s and 70s and broad rediscovery in marine sources today. Check chemspider. There is plenty of corroboration there.

Between the electrical ties to Labrador, the shellfish, seaweed and farming resources, rural Newfoundland would have a bright, independent future on lock down.

However, the greedy, shortsighted mental midgets running the province from the Avalon think with their guns instead of the brains God gave them. They only want to lay claim to rural Newfoundland to deny others rightful access. They’ll change the Crown Lands Act to reclaim land that they want to exploit, pushing off families who’ve had the land in their families for generations. The Avalon will do to rural Newfoundland what Israel is doing to Palestine, steal the land out from under the families trying to live peacefully. Look at how they’re continuing to cut public services. Look at the cuts to education. Look at the gerrymandering under the guise of budget cuts for MHA representation. If they really wanted to uphold democracy, they’d slash their own salaries in half. Less representation diminishes democracy. Small powerful governments supported by a militaristic police have a tendency to become dictatorships. Ask Richard Squires.

So, as my final statement on the tweet that got me detain, I think that Premier Paul Davis is a useless simpleton that is steering Newfoundland towards economic disaster. He wasn’t even a real cop with the RNC, he was a desk jockey. Head spin doctor for media relations. He’s ignorant of the larger issues at play in the world and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador will suffer further due to his shortsighted stupidity.

To get back to my own issue on the 4th floor, when I found out Dr. Talpur would be conducting both the first and second assessments, I requested a second opinion.

At first, the nurses were a little reticent to discuss the matter, but when I explained my situation to them…

I’ll finish off the Day 2 in the next installment.

On the second day of my detainment strange things began to be revealed.

I had a rough sleep my first night. I had been removed from my home and family over idle threats uttered on Twitter, which are covered under free speech and protected as such. Threats uttered out of frustration, bitterness or despair are considered idle and the State had no lawful reason to detain me.

Imagine someone getting frustrated with their job and exclaiming ‘One day I’d like to burn this place to the ground.’ Later on that day they’re dragged off to be detained for a week of psychological analysis. They are branded dangerous and required to be medicated. It creates severe problems with a free, open and democratic society. Your friends, family and co-workers effectively become the ‘thought police’ as described in 1984. Idle threats become reclassified as a thought crime. No police officers, doctors, nurses, judges or politicians ever need threaten your freedom of speech, your social group does it for you.

Criminalizing idle threats through social groups, whether in the real world or online, will be the end of free speech. It creates a precedent where anyone who vocalizes their feelings of dissent at an unfair system, perverted to benefit those in positions of power, can be imprisoned for their words.

This same kind of criminalization of thought and emotion already exists within the psychiatric system. During my time inside I met other people who had been remanded into the custody of a doctor for similar cases. Simply telling an ex-boyfriend she was so upset over their sudden break up she felt like dying was enough to get one girl I met medicated into oblivion. I’ll call her Sunny. Sunny doesn’t even remember the week she was admitted to the ward due to being so heavily medicated. She’s been locked into the system and her mind ever since. Most days she can barely raise her voice above a whisper.

An intelligent young girl, a university graduate working towards a new career, living in her own apartment with her own vehicle… a life obliterated by a single utterance. An idle threat spoken in anger, bitterness, frustration and despair over a break up, misused by someone who had already dissolved their relationship. That misuse ended with Sunny being remanded into semi-permanent custody where she’s not even allowed to request a second opinion from another doctor.

During her stay, while trying to deal with her existing issues, Sunny made friends on the ward. Two of these friends would later go on to end their lives. Sunny is expected to mentally and emotionally heal in a situation where she’s been told something is wrong with her emotions, then she’s denied the ability to grieve the loss of her friends. To me, this illustrates the kind of endemic psychosis present in the system.

I’ll repeat what I said before in regards to all the cops, nurses and doctors I met during my detainment/vacation. All good people. I felt no malicious intent from any of them, aside from the lawyer for the hospital. Him, and others of his ilk, are perfectly comfortable with being malicious for money. They are employed by a system designed to confer authority over their fellow man. It doesn’t matter if the reason for someone being remanded into their authority is lawful or not.

Before I go on further, I’d like to talk a little about what I observed on the ward.

In regards to the ward itself, the environment they’ve created to allow people to heal is so cut off from anything natural or organic its astounding. Not even a single plastic plant breaks the grey monotony. Everything is neutral-toned, old, and the ceiling is covered with rust spots from ancient leaks. The facility is kept clean, but the beds are small, plastic-lined and uncomfortable. The food is largely atrocious, with most meals being barely recognizable as food. The soup was good though, probably the most nutritious item on the menu. Other than that, for breakfast you might find a single slice of bread and a bowl of gruel or dried scrambled eggs that have the consistency of styrofoam. Even clean water is in limited supply. There is a dispenser, but its kept in the nurse’s station. You have to wait until a nurse is available to be able to fill a tiny shotglass with water and ice.

Besides the fact that everything is made of plastic or metal, there are some decorations meant to add depth or levity to the surroundings. Two of them stand out the most in my memory.

The first is a quote from a film actor about how no one hates nurses… unless you’re getting an enema. Why would this be there? Is it some sort of sick joke to remind patients that nurses have the authority to hold them down and perform strange operations against their will? Is the joke supposed to be funny for the nurses or the patients? Perhaps someone in ‘management’ didn’t realize it would be inappropriate to create an adversarial climate between the nurses and their charges. Who ever decided that it would be a good idea to joke about rectally violating patients obviously didn’t put much thought into their message.

The other item that comes to mind is this tree painted onto the wall. It’s supposed to be some sort ‘Tree of Wellness’, but it sends very twisted and ignorant messages. For starters, the tree looks like it’s dying or it’s late fall and losing its leaves. The tree only has a single leaf on each branch, which in most cases looked to have separated from the branch and is in the process of falling instead of being still attached. The tree also has labels written next to each leaf to indicate their importance towards being a healthy person. Some of the names of the leaves are ‘confidence,’ ‘success’ and ‘spirituality.’ This is where the symbolism in the tree draws on the assumptions of psychology which turn it from a non-science based on expertise at judging symptoms, into a religion.

In my own understanding, spirituality forms the root of the tree all things spring from, not a branch. A rich man doesn’t have a better chance of being spiritual than a poor man because he’s already obtained success and confidence. If anything, that confidence rooted in non-spiritual ground prevents that person from ever truly questioning their foundation. Spirituality is given lip service by psychologists and psychiatrists. The religious views of patients are to be respected, but largely ignored. This tree represents a very flawed viewpoint that turns the so-called science of psychology into a fundamentally flawed religion. That flawed religion has also evolved its own version of the Inquisition.

Again, let me be clear, I had no problems with the nurses or doctors themselves during my stay on their ward. They followed their orders to the letter and never gave me any issues whatsoever. My purpose in referring to this particular implementation of psychiatry as ‘The Inquisition’ relates to the healing process that is supposed to occur in this place. Healing through interrogation is about as effective as preaching religion to someone you’re torturing. No trust develops. The psychiatrists in charge of the patients are not therapists. From my discussions with the patients, their doctors appear concerned more with diagnosing side effects of the drugs they’re prescribing than addressing the underlying experience of those under their care. Caring for the patient’s mental wellbeing isn’t their job. Their job is to balance out the cornucopia of medication the patient is receiving.

Treating people as a collection of symptoms denies their inner world. It denies the pain they may be experiencing in favor of treating these natural emotional responses purely as a side effect of some underlying disorder. It ignores root causes completely. Perhaps a person has a strong emotional response to a situation that’s arisen in their life they have developed no mental or emotional processes to deal with. Will muting that pain with medication teach them those needed skills? Will it help them deal with similar situations that emerge in the future? Will it stop the triggering of memories associated with those events from being dragged them kicking and screaming back into the light? Of course not. It just masks or veils those issues in favor of squeezing the person back into their lives.

Who’s fault is it that situations like this have arisen? Surprisingly, it’s neither the doctors who practice their flawed religion of pills, nor the nurses who support them. What I see as the main reason for the current state of despair in the mental health system is a lack of adequate funding and a mismanagement of existing funds. Talking to the nurses and patients, I was told that around the turn of the century the system had much better funding. Understand that? Before Newfoundland and Labrador became a ‘have’ province, we had a better mental health care system.

Since coming into our own financially, so much money has been cut from the system that the ratio of patients to nurses has diminished significantly. Nurses in the ward are so overworked that they only have time to do certain necessary tasks. They deliver pills, take blood pressure and fill out paperwork. Their role as therapists in the healing process has been reduced to that of automatons. They’re forced to ask patients disturbing questions like ‘Do you have any thoughts of suicidal or homicidal ideation?’ instead of simply inquiring how people are feeling. Rather than having the time to provide the feelings of security, stability and trust needed for people to heal their mental wounds, they’re reduced to poking and prodding the people under their care. It leaves the whole process resembling a futuristic version of the Spanish Inquisition. Even Inquisitors thought that they were doing their jobs for the good of the souls they were torturing.

Beyond the limitations placed on nurses in their roles as therapists, there is another problem that compounds viewing the 4th floor ward as a place of healing. It’s used as a dumping ground for people with a tendency towards uncontrolled acts of violence and aggression. When I was first admitted, the ward still bore the scars of one such outburst. The patient’s phone had been destroyed by a patient who lost control of himself and began throwing chairs. A long scar marked the window of the nurse’s station where he tried to break through. How are patients supposed to remain calm and heal their wounds when the possiblity of a violence from which they can’t escape intrudes on their peace?

RNC officers are mandated by the Mental Health Act to bring certain types of offenders to the ward for observation and treatment. Once they’ve delivered that person into the care of the nurses and doctors, their obligation towards them ends. As the patients on the ward are the ones who share their living and sleeping space with these violent offenders, it is their peace of mind that is inherently violated by these events. Without a separate place to bring violent offenders, every time one is introduced to the ward the risk of creating an environment toxic to healing is further compounded.

I’m going to split this day into two posts to keep my own timeline of events separate from my observations of the ward. The events of my own life during this time are only used to illustrate the on-going abuse of process. The people who really need help at this point are the patients, doctors, and nurses who are overworked and overburdened by a system that cares nothing for the importance of their often thankless work.