They Sterilized 200 Patients. The Law That Allowed It Wasn't Repealed Until 1973.

Real institutions. Real records. Real people who were never accounted for. Subscribe to follow the investigation. In 1913, the government of British Columbia opened Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam — the province's largest psychiatric institution. By its peak, it held more than 4,600 patients. In 1933, British Columbia passed the Sterilization Act. It authorized the sterilization of patients in provincial mental institutions without their consent. The sterilizations began that year. Almost all of the patients subjected to them were women. The act was not repealed until 1973. By then, nearly 200 patients had been sterilized at Riverview. In 2003, a group of former patients filed a lawsuit against the province. In 2005, the government settled out of court. Nine women received a total of $450,000. The province did not admit wrongdoing. The full list of patients sterilized under the act has never been made public. Riverview closed in 2012. The patients discharged during deinstitutionalization were transferred to community facilities that were not equipped to receive them. Many ended up homeless. The buildings are still standing. The records remain restricted. This is a documented history of Riverview Hospital — built from BC Archives records, provincial court documents, CBC investigative reporting, and academic research into British Columbia's psychiatric history. Every video on this channel is built around one real institution, one set of verified records, and the people who were never accounted for.