In that case, it is the individual to whom I have just referred and to whom I cannot directly address the question. If he were infected with hepatitis C before 1986 would he accept being excluded from that compensation package?
The Liberals drone on about the should have, could have and would have. It is sickening. It is disgusting to hear that ring in our ears again and again, a track record like that. The minister's answers show that he cannot put himself in the shoes of those people. The minister needs to acknowledge that he has scarred the human side of what government is meant to be.
As Krever reports, the Red Cross was aware that non-A, non-B hepatitis was getting into the blood supply as early as 1978. The Red Cross rejected recommendations from its own people to implement surrogate tests in 1981, the ALT test that has already been referred to, and the 1984 anti-HBC test. A 1995 study in The Lancet , a prestigious and well respected medical journal, later revealed that the combined used of these two tests would have lowered the incidence of post-transfusion hep C by as much as 85%. From 1986 to 1990 the Red Cross was aware that the U.S. was using surrogate testing but did not implement or authorize its use in Canada.
The Prime Minister has admitted the government's direct liability yet he refuses to compensate. This reflects the continuing moral failure of this government. The health minister is the Prime Minister's hired gun, a lawyer using cold legal arguments to exclude victims who deserve compassion. The government meets flood and ice storm tragedies, “acts of God” for which it is not responsible. But this is the worst public health tragedy in Canadian history, for which the government is responsible, make no mistake.
The health minister says that he wants to keep the matter out of the courts but he is ready to drag up to 40,000 sick people into court. The heath minister is prepared to spend millions of tax dollars to battle victims in court which will force sick people to use their remaining strength and financial resources to fight for what is rightfully theirs. The health minister is hypocritical in compensating some hepatitis C victims while compensating all AIDS tainted blood victims.
Since 1992 the feds have spent more than $3 billion to help 40,000 fishermen who were thrown out of work, as they ought to, but the Liberals cannot bring themselves to help dying people, not people out of jobs. That is reason enough to help them. These are people not only out of jobs but out of their lives. They are dying people. When in opposition the Liberals called for compensation of all thalidomide victims, all HIV victims through tainted blood. Earlier the government compensated all who had urea formaldehyde foam insulation in their houses. Mr. Klein reversed his stand against compensating victims for sterilization programs in Alberta. Mr. Harris changed his mind with respect to Ontario's Dionne quintuplets. Why can the federal health minister not do the honourable thing, save face in some manner, do some supplementary program and compensate all victims?
After four years of public pressure, finally at long last Ireland did give generous compensation to its victims. But we have to wait four years in Canada, the supposed number one nation in the world, for that. It has already taken three years. How many more years will victims have to wait? If Ireland, a nation one-tenth the size of Canada, can afford to be generous to its victims, why cannot Canada?
The health minister says he wants to save the government money, but there are three class actions for $5 billion against him already and more to come. If he really wants to help taxpayers he will settle out of court. The health minister claims if we compensate hepatitis C victims we would have to settle others, like victims of faulty breast implants. But those companies have settled with 16,000 Canadian breast implant victims for $900 million. Each company owned up, faced responsibility and settled out of court. Why cannot the health minister do that?
Hepatitis C victims say the government's number of 40,000 is probably deliberately inflated. The Red Cross says half of that. What is the real number? There are number games being played to turn the Canadian public against the hepatitis C victims. Why is he doing that? The government should be giving compensation to all.