Mr. Speaker, today Canadians heard about the heroic fight of hepatitis C victims in Ireland who after years of fighting finally won a fair compensation package from their government. Sadly it took the death of a prominent activist to bring enough shame on that government to act.
The Canadian government has the opportunity now to act with compassion and end the battle being fought by the wounded, the sick and their loved ones.
Instead of acting with fairness and justice the government has drawn an arbitrary line separating those who would be compensated from those who would not.
Today the victims of hepatitis C stood united on Parliament Hill refusing to be divided by government motivated by cost rather than compassion.
I call on the government to ease the suffering of all hepatitis C victims and to offer a fair and just compensation package for all now.
There must be justice for all the victims of hepatitis C. By showing some compassion, the federal government would avoid forcing the victims to suffer through lawsuits.