Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to take this opportunity to thank the witnesses for being here today. I also want to thank Gord Brown for his persistence in getting this to committee.
As well, I'm very pleased to see a lot of political goodwill, because as the chair just said, the purpose of the program was to right a historical wrong. We around the table understand that science evolves, and the government originally put forth their criteria before that WHO meeting in 2014. I'm really pleased to have Dr. Edwards here as an expert on pharmacovigilance to give us some advice. That's what I'm going to be asking questions on.
Dr. Edwards, could you give us some insight? For Canada's program, to meet eligibility, you basically had to have one in three eligibility requirements. As my colleague Don Davies said, at the end of the day, it's going to come down to a political decision, a policy decision. What advice would you give the minister if we're going to revisit the criteria?
From your experience, how do the eligibility criteria for the thalidomide survivors contribution program compare with the eligibility criteria and assessment processes of similar compensation programs for thalidomide survivors in other jurisdictions?
What advice could you give us and give the minister?