- Volume 5 Number 42 Bucksport,
Maine November 7, 1996 50 cents
By SHARON BRAY
BUCKSPORT-As promised last November, Serge
Bourassa-Lacombe has pedaled his bicycle back to town. The Enterprise carried his picture Nov.16, 1995. He was on his way to Florida with a campaign
to raise funds and awareness for his foundation promoting justice for abused and oppressed
people.
Bourassa-Lacombe
has bicycled more than 4,444 miles, walked and hitchhiked another 3,000, telling his story
and calling on governments in his native Quebec and around the world to protect citizens
from mistreatment in psychiatric hospitals, and from false arrest and suffering caused by
mistaken identities.
Early in
1995, the 37-year-old automobile business worker and student was arrested and incarcerated
in the mental ward of a hospital in Sherbrooke, PQ, for 57 days. He was released with no
strings (or drugs) attached, but also with no help to deal with what had happened to him.
October 11, 1995, the Quebec government acknowledged that they bad arrested the wrong
Serge Lacombe. Eventually they granted him a name change to prevent further confusion. The
man they were looking for had the same name, birth date and height as Lacombe, but his
eyes were the wrong color, and the accused criminal has distinguishing tattoos, according
to Bucksport's cycling visitor, who carries substantial documentation for every aspect of
his story.
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Bourassa-Lacombe hopes to stay in this area a few weeks as he prepares for the
next. step in his crusade for recognition and prevention of the kind of injustice he had
experienced. Dec. 18 he has an appointment in New York with the Lawyers Committee for
Human Rights. If the Canadian government does not me his demands, Bourassa-Lacombe says he
will become the first Canadian to apply for political asylum in the US.
He Wants his government to
introduce him at an international press conference; to acknowledge his accomplishments; to
promise no more psychiatric torture and to take steps to prevent crossed identities
when making arrests.
Bourassa-Lacombe is fluently
bilingual, speaking with a distinctive French accent. He has made appointments to speak
with Sister Lucy at H.O.M.E. and with Bucksport Mayor Lisa Whitney. He hopes to meet
Stephen King as he seeks support for his foundation and its mission. In an his travels, he
has depended on and received generous support from people along the way, having no paying
job and no government welfare.
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The
Enterprise
Published
weekly, except the last weeks of March, June, September and December, for Bucksport,
Orland, Verona and surrounding towns. Subscriptions in Maine $27 a year, out of state $32
a year, outside the U.S. $40 a year. Periodical postage paid at Bucksport, ME. (USPS #009997)
Postmaster: send address changes to P.O. Box 829, Bucksport ME 04416. Telephone (207)
469-6722
- Sharon Bray-publisher and
editor
- Kristin Cook--designer
- Cheri Phillips
Domina--associate editor
- Julia Edelblute--advertising
manager
- Richard Hale--copy editor
- John
Chapin--circulation/business manager
- Robin Lonski--editorial
assistant
- Contributing writers and
photographers: Gail Hallowell, Joyce
- Johnson, Nancy Etter, Hans
Duvefelt, John Hunt, Thomas Parker,
- John Gobel, Charles Brown,
Stuart Gross, Richard Tracy, Earleen
- Clement, James Sweet, Elmer
Edelblute, William Larkin, Myrtle
- Pendleton, Sally Lyman, Emily
Peckenham
- Member of the Maine
Press Association and Bucksport Bay Area Bucksport Bay Area
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