Madam Speaker, it is inaccurate to say that there has been no compensation planned for any of the victims. Half of the victims, those between 86 and 90, were promised a fairly substantial amount of money. Many were left out completely except for—and this is interesting—Ontario and Quebec have both provided provincial compensation for the victims who were left out.
The saddest thing to my mind is that this process had to go through what I consider to be legal wrangling rather than the way the compensation program was handled for HIV victims of tainted blood. There was no legal wrangling involved there. These funds were laid out and dispersed very quickly.
I have a couple of patients in my constituency who are so ill that I do not think they will see the compensation they have been promised. It is scant help to them to know that they will get some funds after they are deceased. It is one of those chapters in Canadian history that when it is all written down will be one of the saddest sagas in terms of our history. The regulators let these individuals down. The tests were available. Krever said that we should give them help. This is a dreadful saga in Canadian history.