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. 

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.