Vancouver, British Columbia -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/6/2005 -- The Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a psychiatric watchdog group, claims that there is no difference between the electro-shock given people in the West for “treatment” and the electro-shock given political prisoners such as Wang Waxing a dissident prisoner who has now been freed from one of China’s psychiatric jails called the Beijing Ankang Hospitalfor the Criminally Insane. Wang Waxing was forced to watch electric-shock “treatment” being performed on fellow inmates and he himself was forced to take antipsychotic drugs during his 13 year stay.

Ironically, under the British Columbia Mental Health Act, the police can beordered to apprehend anyone who in the opinion of another is considered tohave a “mental disorder” that impairs their ability (a) to react appropriatelyto the person's environment, or (b) to associate with others. The person canthen be forcibly removed from their home in handcuffs, taken to the nearest psychiatric unit where they can be restrained, possibly given electric-shock and forcibly drugged against their will. No different than the torturous treatment that happens to political dissenters in other countries in the East.

A staggering 46 thousand electroshocks have been given to British Columbians by psychiatrists in the past 5 years, almost doubling the amount delivered in the previous 5 years and totaling 3,143,536 taxpayer dollars in their pockets. The number of shocks peaked in the year 2000 when psychiatrists got a pay increase to $70.66 each time they pulled the switch.

Currently, According to Medical Services Plan, over 10,000 electro-shocks are being given to people by psychiatrists every year in British Columbia alone.

Brian Beaumont, President of the Vancouver chapter of CCHR said, “Psychiatrists in this country try to persuade the population into believing that electro-shock is not the bone-crunching procedure used as torture in other countries and that the movie ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ is not a true depiction of normal psychiatric hospitals in the western countries. But the truth is electro-shock produces the effect, in any country, of hitting someone on the head with a sledge hammer and psychiatric wards are often worse than depicted in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’. Electric shock creates memory loss and irreparable brain damage and is now being used in every psychiatric hospital and general hospital with a psychiatric ward in British Columbia”.

Through psychiatrists' false diagnoses, stigmatizing labels, easy-seizure commitment laws, brutal, depersonalizing "treatments," thousands of individuals are harmed and denied their inherent human rights.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights and to clean up the field of mental healing.

CCHR's work aligns with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in particular the following precepts, which psychiatrists violate on a daily basis particularly through the use of the mental heath acts around the world.

Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 7: All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.

If you been damaged by psychiatric “treatment” please call the Citizens Commission on Human Rights at 1 800 670 2247