Mr. Speaker, it is one of the more important days in the House to be able to stand and speak. It is not only a subject which is extremely important, but one in which, because of co-operation on all sides of the House, we are able to have a serious and full debate without resorting to the extreme partisanship that sometimes takes place in the House.
I am pleased this afternoon to share my time with the hon. member for Churchill.
During my time, I would like to speak first of all about the importance of drug safety and of regulations.
Sometimes governments today, and many people and theoreticians in our society, talk about the value of deregulation, of leaving everything up to the marketplace. Surely, the issue of public health and safety, and something as specific as drug safety, are a very key and important role for government. In the case of thalidomide, the government clearly did not do its job. The government, for whatever reasons at the time, failed to protect the health and safety of Canadians.
The use of the drug thalidomide in Canada has been rightly called one of the most serious drug catastrophes anywhere.
I have met individuals who were affected by thalidomide. They are charming people. They are like normal people everywhere, except they have very serious physical deformities. The people I have met are incredibly courageous and dignified. In spite of the incredible barriers they face, they try to live their lives as fully as possible, and with as much dignity as possible.
It is important that we have a strong regulatory regime to ensure that we have drug safety. It is important for Canadians to count on their government, whether it is in the area of pharmaceuticals, or it is food safety, transportation safety, all areas where people would normally rely on their government to look out for their best interests.
In the case of thalidomide, we had a situation where a drug that was not permitted by other governments was approved and sold in Canada. It was a drug that was designed to reduce nausea in pregnant women. Women rely on their doctors and on public safety laws to ensure their safety, especially during pregnancy. In my own pregnancies, I was hyperconscious of my safety. Pregnant women are always concerned about what they are breathing in, what they are eating and drinking, to make sure that the safety of the fetus is protected. In the case of thalidomide, unlike other governments, the Government of Canada failed.
I want to salute my colleague from Vancouver East for her work in the broad field of health, and also her work with thalidomide survivors. I also want to thank her for bringing forward today's motion. The motion calls on the House to provide full support to the survivors of thalidomide, recognize the urgent need to defend the rights and dignity of those affected, and provide support to survivors in co-operation with the thalidomide survivors task force.
It is important that the relationship be one of collaboration, co-operation, and respect, not of charity. These individuals did nothing wrong. Their parents did nothing wrong. They believed in the government and the regulatory regime of the day, and sadly they were failed.
I have been contacted by many community members about this, all calling for the government to right this wrong, and to support the thalidomide survivors in Canada to ensure they not only get compensation and support, but to ensure that such a public health disaster never happens again.
I have a letter that is particularly moving. It is from a constituent who elaborates on the facts that we now know about thalidomide and its impact throughout the 1960s. She was personally affected by this public health catastrophe because her sister was one of the victims of thalidomide. I was very moved by the letter from this constituent. She wrote to me and my provincial counterpart about her sister, Kim Beeston, the very first thalidomide baby born in Canada, who was delivered in hospital in Toronto on January 20, 1962.
A photo of her with her parents holding their bright-eyed, smiling girl was featured in The Globe and Mail. For years Kim was followed by the media. She became an avid swimmer, competed in wheelchair basketball, and hitchhiked across Canada with her dog Sam. She was an activist, pressing for wheelchair-adapted housing. However, she then began to withdraw because her body began to fail her and she had chronic pain. Sadly, she passed away over a decade ago in a one-bedroom public housing unit in Toronto.
She had a great deal of scarring across her body because of the impacts of thalidomide. She had almost non-existent legs and very deformed feet and toes. She was born with the damage of thalidomide, and her sister said that its shadow trailed her to her death.
The day after she died, her father took his life. He left a note addressed to his daughter. He was apologizing to her, said her younger sister. He felt responsible that he could not be there 24/7 to care for her. Ultimately, he was blaming himself.
This family's story is a lesson about the forgotten fallout of thalidomide. The need to relieve the victims' suffering is evident. The tragedy of the Beeston family began when Kim's late mother swallowed a pill with her doctor's blessing. The ripples of that single act never stopped.
On behalf of Kim and her family, the sister wrote:
It is time the Canadian Government took responsibility for this horrific event in our history, the remaining Thalidomide Survivors deserve no less!
Therefore, I would urge all members in the House to think not only of the Beeston family but of all of the thalidomide survivors. Let us ensure that these survivors are compensated, are supported, are treated with respect, and that their needs are dealt with in terms of support and accommodation for the rest of their days. Let us also reaffirm to Canadians that we must never, ever fall prey to ideological communications that somehow convince us that government does not matter and that everything should be deregulated and left up to the private sector alone, because that indeed was the origin of this tragedy.
I will conclude there. However, I would like to thank my colleagues on all sides of the House for this important debate today. I urge the government and all of us to get this done quickly.