Mr. Speaker, it is quite an honour today to participate in this debate. It is one of the good days in this place when we feel we are making progress to right a wrong, and it is a historic wrong.
I thank my hon. colleague for again mentioning Vanessa's law.
I was quite struck when Bill C-17 was first tabled to realize that even after the thalidomide scandal, the Minister of Health in this country lacked the power to recall a pharmaceutical drug until we passed Vanessa's law in this place. That is decades of inaction against an obvious threat.
We have not yet done enough as a society and as a Parliament to ensure transparency and proper regulation of the pharmaceutical industry. We have further to go, although Vanessa's law represents a significant turning point in being willing to insist on recalling drugs and ensuring that the positive and negative drug trial results are published, to avoid a future thalidomide disaster.
I want to thank my hon. colleague and all MPs in this place for making some progress for both the victims of thalidomide and toward avoiding a future disaster of that order.
We really need to control the pharmaceutical industry.