Richard Henry Bain the Manchurian Candidate

Political assassination attempts often raise the following question: Was the gunman brainwashed? Richard Bain the gunman that attempted to kill the PQ leader Pauline Marois, according to a couple that hired him as a fishing guide weeks before the Metropolis shooting told the media Richard Bain was talking about Quebec politics and that he didn’t fear death. He told the couple that if he was in power he would separate Montreal from Quebec.

Those who knew Richard Bain considered him normal despite that he constantly quoted the bible, wanted to buy crown land, and disliked Quebec politics.

Richard Bain owned the Chalet but not the land it was built on. He wanted Jean Charest to sell crown corporation land in exchange for votes.

Was this a lone gunman gone nuts or is it something bigger? With the student protest this summer the FLQ has resurfaced. Quebec ain’t new to political warfare. The October Crisis of 1970 invoked the War Measures Act, allowing the Feds to deploy the Armed Forces onto the streets of Quebec.

October 15th, 1970 then labor minister Michel Chartrand announces that popular support for the FLQ is rising and stated “We are going to win because there are more boys ready to shoot members of Parliament than there are policemen.”

December 3, 1970: Montreal, Quebec: After being held hostage for 62 days, kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross is released by the FLQ Liberation Cell terrorists after negotiations with police. Simultaneously, the five known kidnappers, Marc Carbonneau, Yves Langlois, Jacques Lanctôt, Jacques Cossette-Trudel, and his wife, Louise Lanctôt, are granted safe passage to Cuba by the government of Canada after approval by Fidel Castro. They are flown to Cuba by a Canadian Forces aircraft.

Now with Richard Bain not fearing death, yet fit to stand trial raises questions about Project MKUltra. The CIA was interested in being able to manipulate foreign leaders with such techniques, and would later invent several schemes to drug Fidel Castro. Some historians have asserted that creating a “Manchurian Candidate” subject through “mind control” techniques was the goal of MKUltra and related CIA projects.

Bain was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal on Wednesday, where he underwent what the hospital described as a medical evaluation. The hospital hasn’t said if the evaluation was completed for physical or psychiatric reasons.

The Allan Memorial Institute (AMI; sometimes colloquially referred to as The Allan), located in what was then the Golden Square Mile in Montreal, Quebec, houses the Psychiatry Department of the Royal Victoria Hospital, part of the McGill University Health Centre. Although currently a respected psychiatric hospital, the institute is known for its role in Project MKULTRA by the CIA. The Agency’s initiative to develop drug-induced “mind control” techniques was implemented in the institute by its then Director Donald Ewen Cameron from 1957 to 1964. The institute occupies the mansion formerly known as Ravenscrag.

Let’s not forget that the Manchurian Candidate was written in 1959, filmed in 1962, and redone in 2004. Was sending Richard Bain to the Royal Victoria hospital and delaying his court appearance the best idea?