Misremembering Michelle Remembers

I just watched the incredibly mediocre CBC documentary SATAN WANTS YOU - a supposed debunking of Satanic Ritual Abuse as described in the 1980 biography MICHELLE REMEMBERS.

The book, co-written by Michelle Smith and therapist Lawrence Padger, became an international bestseller, telling the story of a woman in Victoria, BC having flashbacks to her childhood in a 1950s witchcraft cult.

The full documentary can be viewed for free on CBC Gems. The first half is a decent retelling of the background including clips from actual therapy in which Michelle relives scenes from her childhood including sexual abuse, torture and cannibalism. Family and friends give insights against a timeline of how the book became a media sensation bringing international negative attention to the Canadian west coast city of Victoria.

The film pretends that this single isolated case and one woman's “baseless allegations” spawned a tsunami of hysteria that led to disclosures, scandals and numerous arrests of innocent people until the False Memory Foundation arrived on the scene to save us from “unethical” therapists like Lawrence Padzer who had treated Michelle for several years before she began disclosing memories of Satanic ritual abuse in early childhood.

"Under Pazder's care, Smith underwent "recovered-memory therapy" — a practice that's since been discredited [sic] — and the book recounts their extensive sessions together. The result was a best-selling work of horror, a memoir with a paperback tagline that promised the same checkout-line thrills as a V.C. Andrews joint: "The shocking true story of the ultimate evil — a child's possession by the Devil!"

That quote sums up the tone of the documentary, which treats the case and “Satanic Panic” that ensued as a weird anomaly that can be traced back to and blamed on one misguided therapist and his emotionally crippled, needy patient.

It's typical of a CBC-funded production to adopt a superior stance without even a token attempt at a real investigation. Even basic logical continuity and fact checking seem to be beyond this team of amateur debunkers on a mission.

Because I have been to Victoria, and have heard about the cult scene there, I decided to look up the two filmmakers Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams who are based there.

Sure enough, they're connected to people in the Wicca community. It's a very large scene, as occult networks go. In fact, my impression is you can't avoid it if you live in or around Victoria and are involved in anything cultural.

It's all-pervasive, like the fashionable wokism that targets anyone asking questions about children who disappear from day care staffed by workers from marginal LGBTQ2 and Trans segments of society.

I know at least one registered trauma therapist in that city who works with SRA survivors that they could have interviewed. Since Michelle's story emerged, countless survivors have come forward, told their stories on tape, and written books corroborating her experience.

Because I receive almost daily reports from survivors of SRA, I have no doubt it is real, probably affecting millions around the world. So it amazes me that CBC still refers back to a single, decades-old book to build its flimsy dismissal of all the literature -- never thinking to look into the vast library of documented abuse cases.

Meanwhile children disappear by the thousands every year and cults proliferate, fuelled by the popularity of trendy ritual magic and witchcraft in pop culture ..

Years ago, prolific British-born poet Robin Skelton started a witchcraft coven based at the University of Victoria and his influence can still be felt.

In the film, Church of Satan spokesperson Blanche Barton defends Satanism as a life-affirming religion that would never harm children. Coincidentally, Victoria poet John Barton, who also edited Skelton’s literary magazine The Malahat Review, is named as a mentor of one of the filmmakers. Sharing a name, could Blanche (who lives in San Francisco) and John be related in some way?

Some of the children who survived these horrors were selected for careers in Canadian media. Most of them have no idea what they are part of, other than that they are enlightened avatars who get offended when a local cult victim's story exposes their secret vices to the world.

Victoria, BC is a stronghold of the Canadian literary Mafia and MICHELLE REMEMBERS is a rare book that escaped the gatekeepers to became an international sensation.

Now that Michelle Smith Padzer's husband and co-author is dead, they're still working hard to discredit her memories. I wouldn't be surprised if this Hot Doc is part of a much bigger cover up that reaches across Canada, thanks to our once-respected national broadcaster, the CBC.

Someone said recently that “Saving the CBC is the key to saving Canada.” I couldn't disagree more. Canadians need to be saved from the deadly influence of this small-town clique that still believes it belongs to the club that rules the world.

Don't waste your time on this unless you want a taste of how badly CBC journalism has deteriorated since Michele Remembered.