Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the motion before us. I wholeheartedly support the survivors of thalidomide and the work they have been doing to bring this issue to the public's attention.
I also want to thank my colleague, the member of Parliament for Vancouver East, for bringing this issue forward and for her support.
The government has agreed to support the survivors' request. I congratulate the Minister of Health and thank her for taking this position.
We all know the story of what happened with thalidomide in the 1950s. In 1954, the drug was created by a German company and was sent out to other countries. With the exception of the United States, most clinical trials showed that this was a safe drug at the time. However, in 1961, issues of deformities and very drastic side-effects from the drug began to show up in women who were pregnant. Therefore, in 1961, most countries removed the drug from the market.
However, the drug continued to remain in Canada for a few extra months. As a result of pregnant women taking that drug, 2,000 children died. As we know, if a child or fetus is unsustainable because of severe malformation, it does not necessarily exist. There were miscarriages very early in pregnancies or mid-pregnancies due to these kinds of deformities. There were 10,000 children born with serious defects, and that does not include the thousands of fetuses that never came to fruition as a result of severe malformations.
It is important that we look back at this story. As a result of this, Canada began to develop, and has developed, a very strong and vigorous drug reporting system. We always need to learn from our mistakes. Hindsight is 20/20, and we tend to think that we could have done different things at the time. However, at that time, I do not think people understood or knew that drugs could cause many of these issues, such as the defects from the use of this drug.
However, we need to bear responsibility for what happened in those days. One of the things we feel is important to remember is that, and it does not matter what party is in government, the federal government made decisions that caused this problem. Therefore, the federal government has a responsibility and a duty to right that wrong. There are also ethical and moral aspects, and we need to ensure we have compassion, that justice is served and that we care for Canadians who are harmed or suffer, as this group has, from any kind of side effect.
I wanted to speak to the motion, because the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health brought up this issue, and it is worth discussing. It is extremely relevant for us to talk about the drug approval system in Canada.
We do have a strong drug approval system and, indeed, it was because of thalidomide. Vanessa's law is a good law, but we believe it could have gone further. We have heard recently that in the last seven years, the number of faulty drugs that have gone on the market have tripled.
One of the things that could have been strengthened in Vanessa's law is not merely that the minister can pull a drug off the shelf if he or she finds it is either faulty or there are adverse effects being reported from the use of the drug, but ensure that it is truly open and that the public is aware of that.
The Food and Drug Administration in the United States has public reporting of clinical trials and public reporting immediately when there are adverse effects of faulty drugs. We have seen that over and over. However, we have a tendency not to let the public know, and we need to do that. It is important that the health care professionals who prescribe drugs and the pharmacists who dispense them, in many instances off the counter, are aware, as soon as possible, when there is some adverse effect or when there is a faulty drug.
This is something we need to talk about, and I am not being partisan. I think we all feel it is important to speak to the issue of drug safety.
I also am pleased the minister has decided to support the motion, but I would like to ensure that the details, and the devil is always in the details, of what the thalidomide survivors have asked for will be taken into consideration.
We know that in 1991 a simple one-time-only payout was made to many of the thalidomide survivors of about $52,000 to $82,000, depending on the severity of their disabilities. However, to be cynical, I do not think most people at that time felt that anyone with such severe disabilities would survive into their fifties. That it is a tribute to the resilience and the powerful will of the survivors of thalidomide. They have spent a lot of time learning how to live with these disabilities, how to work with them and find meaningful jobs, how to move on and live some sort of meaningful life.
However, because they have reached their fifties and many of their family members have passed on, or maybe their parents are no longer able to support them, they are suffering probably sooner than most of us from chronic disabilities, such as arthritis and diseases. We well know that many of them only have one lung, sometimes one kidney or have severe limb deformities because of the effect of this drug. It is really important now for these survivors to get the help they need.
I hope that when the government says it will support the motion and it will support the survivors, that we do not go back to the old, “let's give them a lump sum”. We have seen what Germany and the United Kingdom have done. They have given yearly stipends and financial living assistance to many of their survivors, which totals somewhere around $88,000 to $110,000 per year.
I hope the government will give the survivors what they have asked for. We know they will need to have an annual living stipend, as they have asked for, which will allow them to get the adaptations they need for their cars, their homes and their workplaces. They will need the technical assistance to help them to do the things that we take for granted, such as washing their hair, brushing their teeth, basic daily living needs. They will need help such as home care or someone living with them full time or part time to assist them. That requires an annual stipend and financial living assistance for as long as these survivors live.
We know clearly what they have asked for. They have said that they want a $250,000 lump sum payment immediately and $100,000 a year for as long as they live. This will allow them to live meaningful, pain-free lives, have basic living care, and continue to work, if they work.
I repeat that I hope the minister will give these survivors exactly what they have asked for and not water it down.
We can all learn from this lesson. I want to thank the War Amps. In 1991, it pushed for that stipend when it was told very clearly by the government of the day, in late 1989, early 1990, that there would be no money because that would create a precedent for those who were infected by tainted blood.
As members know, the Liberals, when they formed government, spent a great deal of money on recompense and on living expenses for people who had been infected by tainted blood, following a major inquiry into the tainted blood issue.
The bottom line is that government has a responsibility, regardless of its strip, to look at these mistakes, redress them, and learn from them. That is very important. Thalidomide has taught us a very important lesson. As I said, we have a strong regulatory system, one of the best in world, and that has come about as a result of this problem.
I hope we are really open about the public's need to know. As we saw with birth control pills about a year ago, the government knew about the faulty pills. Women were taking these pills and health professionals were dispensing them, without knowing about the faultiness of those prescription drugs. Of course, we know what the result of taking a faulty birth control pill is. That could be a huge problem for many women who did not wish to become pregnant.
Over and over, we have seen the need for openness to the public. The Food and Drug Administration in the United States has done this very well. We can take a page from its book and learn that the more people know and understand, the better the caveat emptor, the better they can understand what they take so they can make rational decisions on over-the-counter drugs and on the health care professionals who prescribe them.
This piece needs to be put into Vanessa's law. I know many of us, the official opposition and our party, brought this up during the hearings on that bill. We felt this still was missing. This is not, as the parliamentary secretary said, being partisan. If we all care and we are all in agreement, we can talk about the things we need to do to improve our system.
I wish to thank my colleague from Vancouver East for bringing this forward. I hope the government will in fact listen to the victims, and be very generous and open with that compensation.