U of R REB was given incomplete information, did not flag as concerning
Jackson Rennebohm, contributor
On June 10, CBC News published an article written by Geoff Leo titled “Inside the Brain School.” Leo’s article details experiments conducted on Saskatchewan children by an American company called the Biocybernaut Institute.
These experiments, conducted on Indigenous youth from Prince Albert and area, were fully approved by the University of Regina (U of R) Research Ethics Board (REB) in 2013. The experiments have since ceased, but Leo uncovered troublesome and exploitative elements of the study.
The Biocybernaut Institute is based out of Sedona, Arizona and was founded in 1983 by Dr. James Hardt. Biocybernaut specializes in the research of neuroscience as well as providing seven-day training programs, which purport to “teach clients how to control their own brainwaves” via a technology known as neurofeedback.
Neurofeedback technology enables users to hear and or see their own brainwaves, which supposedly allows patients to “detect and fix faulty thought patterns.”
The goal of the experiments conducted on Indigenous youth in Saskatchewan was to test the effectiveness of Biocybernaut’s seven-day treatment programs in regards to trauma. Sometime in 2013, the Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division began to promote the project (known internally as the Prince Albert School Study [PASS]) to students in six schools after the study received approval by the U of R’s REB.
“Change your brainwaves; change your life!” was the slogan apparently used on the school’s promotional brochures. CBC News reported that “according to Hardt, 60 children aged 12 to 15 participated, along with one parent or guardian each.”
The experiments took place at a facility in Victoria, British Columbia, with funding for the participants’ trips provided by the Pure North S’Energy Foundation. Pure North, a non-profit started by Alberta oil billionaire Allan Markin, was a vitamin and supplement provider which CBC also investigated before the NPO’s shutdown.
According to CBC, another “aim of [Biocybernaut’s] project was to test the benefits of Markin’s vitamins and supplements.”
In their investigation of Markin’s organization, CBC found that Pure North’s program “was not accurately supported by science… couldn’t prove the health and economic outcomes it claimed… [and] distributed high doses of vitamin D and other nutrients in a way that could pose a health risk.” At one point, Pure North offered its program to thousands of Alberta seniors.
According to participants, the details of the experiments were not made clear in advance. Alma Stonestand and her daughter, Chyna Gallernault, members of the James Smith Cree Nation, participated in the experiment. Gallernault was 12 at the time.
In preparation for the experiment, the two “were ushered into a room where Biocybernaut staff began attaching electrodes to their heads,” and were then separated, and placed in rooms Hardt called “chambers” that were described byCBC as “small [and] dark.”
Technicians remained in a separate room, observing the participants by video. According to Gallernault, for the majority of the seven-day program, she was alone “in a dark room for more than half the day, listening to scary trumpets.” These “scary trumpets” were produced by the neurofeedback technology, which translated Gallernault’s brainwave activity into audio. Gallernault witnessed another participant, a grandmother, having “a panic attack from claustrophobia from being in the room.”
By the third day of the study, Gallernault and Stonestand both wished to leave Victoria, but were unable due to their financial situation. “We were poor. We were given a free trip. We had no choice but to stay, because we had no way back,” Stonestand told CBC.
According to Stonestand, the consent form she signed “didn’t mention electrodes, dark rooms or strange sounds.”
CBC acquired a copy of the study’s ethics application approved by the REB, and found that the application also failed to mention the same crucial details, reporting that “Electrodes being attached to people’s heads… subjects being placed alone in dark rooms for hours a day… [and] detailed discussion of trauma” were not mentioned in the application, despite all being major parts of the experiment.
Amanda LaVallee, is an assistant professor of social work who experienced Biocybernaut’s brain training program, and was close to becoming part of the research team for the Prince Albert School Study. When Leo contacted her, she provided a potential theory as to why the REB approved the study despite the neglect of crucial information.
Carrie Bourassa, former First Nations University professor, “was the study’s principal investigator, along with James Hardt,” according to CBC. LaVallee believes Bourassa’s popularity a decade ago may have influenced the ethics board’s decision. Bourassa, at the time, “was considered to be a leading Indigenous scholar and a rising star in academia,” leading LaVallee to believe the study was approved by the U of R to avoid potential claims of racism if it were denied.
Bourassa, for years claimed to be of Metis and Anishinaabe ancestry, but a 2021 CBC investigation found her to be “of entirely European descent.” Shortly afterwards, she was removed from her position as director of the Institute of Aboriginal Peoples’ Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
The Executive Director of Communications and Marketing at the U of R, Linsay Rabyj, claimed that “the University of Regina is committed to responsible, respectful, ethical, and safe research” and that their “current review processes have evolved to become…broader.” Rabyj went on to say that “if the same proposal was brought forward today, the review process would be more robust.” Rabyj did not explicitly state that the experiment would not be approved by the REB.
In 2021, the office of the Vice President Research initiated an external investigation. According to a statement released by the VP Research office, “all recommendations from the extensive external review have been implemented.” Recommendations include the addition of two Compliance Specialists.
Part of the Compliance Specialists’ responsibilities are to flag “regulatory issues such as conflict of interest, missing information, etc.” The REB also instated “community member representation on the board,” which they claim means that “[four] members can provide the Indigenous community perspective on the current board besides the Co-Chair (Indigenous Research).”
