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newsJun 14, 202428:54pending

The “brain school” that experimented on Indigenous children

Front Burner

About this episode

In 2014, a U.S. brainwave scientist claimed he could increase people’s creativity and cure their traumas. And he got permission to experiment on Indigenous children in Canada, offering an all-expenses-paid trip to Victoria, B.C.


But a decade later, some study participants say the testing they went through — which included staff attaching electrodes to their heads and being asked to talk about the most traumatic moments of their lives — wasn’t what they signed up for and may have left side-effects.


We hear from CBC’s Geoff Leo about what his investigation turned up and why critics are demanding more accountability and transparency over how the study was approved in the first place.


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The “brain school” that experimented on Indigenous children

Front Burner

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