The Citizens Commission on Human Rights has asked the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons to explain how Dr. Aubrey Levin, who emigrated to Canada in the mid 90s, was allowed to become a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry (Forensic Division) at the University of Calgary’s Medical School, in light of the fact that in 1997 South Africa’s “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” named him for possible “gross human rights abuses” during Apartheid rule.
The forensic psychiatrist, who fled to Canada after the end of Apartheid rule, was arrested by police in Alberta on March 24 2010. He was charged with sexual assault after a 36-year-old former patient alleged he was sexually abused while being treated by the doctor. There are now at least 29 more victims that have come forward in the past few days.
It has been alleged that in the 1980s and 1990s Levin, then a colonel, was the chief psychiatrist at 1 Military Hospital's infamous Ward 22, where homosexual conscripts and soldiers were "treated" with aversion therapy. There have also been reports that involuntary sex changes, sometimes deliberately botched, were allegedly imposed on gays and lesbians. The process included chemical castration and electric shocks.
According to South African media sources, Levin's 'treatment' of homosexuals, both male and female, comprised attaching electrodes to the arms of his subjects. These were connected to a machine operated by a dial calibrated from 1 to 10. In the case of suspected gay men, the subjects were shown black and white pictures of naked men and encouraged by Levin to fantasize about the pictures. They were then given increasingly painful shocks. This process was followed by showing the 'patients' Playboy centerfolds, which would be described in glowing terms by the psychiatrist, with no shocks administered. The same process, using pictures of women, counter posed with naked men, was employed with those women deemed to have lesbian tendencies.
Besides Dr. Levin, six other psychiatrists have either been criminally convicted, stripped of their license to practice or severely reprimanded in British Columbia in the past 5 years, mostly for sexually assaulting their patients or for sexual misconduct with patients. One of the psychiatrists was sentenced to 18 months in jail for his criminal activities. Another was labeled a ``sexual predator`` by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia.
Brian Beaumont, spokesperson for the British Columbia chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), said “Psychiatric sexual assault is a very common occurrence over the world, but all too often the perpetrator is only slapped on the wrist by being given a fine or suspension from practice for these criminal activities”. “There has been ample evidence that women are at very great risk of being sexually assaulted while in a psychiatrist's office”. “Now even men are at risk”, he concluded.
If you know anyone, including a child, who has been abused or harmed by a psychiatrist call The Citizens Commission on Human Rights at 1-800-670-2247. Complete confidentiality assured.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights was established by the Church of Scientology to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights.
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