Mr. Speaker, today the New Democratic Party brings this motion before the House in a spirit of working with the health minister and his government and with their provincial and territorial counterparts to ensure the successful negotiation of a compensation package to meet the financial and health needs of all victims of hepatitis C.
A week ago today will be remembered as a low point in the history of this parliament, perhaps a low point in Canadian history. It will be remembered as the day when 155 members on the government benches, for all the wrong reasons, stood together to oppose a public policy measure that Canadians knew in their hearts as well as in their heads was the fair and proper thing to do, namely, to compensate all victims of hepatitis C.
It is clear that victims of hepatitis C had no control over the conditions that resulted in their infection, but it is also clear that the Government of Canada had regulatory control and responsibility. That responsibility remains to all victims of hepatitis C.
When last Tuesday's vote was over the federal health minister declared that the file was closed, that the matter was over and that there was nothing more to be said. However it was absolutely clear to us, to the members of the New Democratic Party caucus, indeed to all members on the opposition benches, that this file could not be closed until justice was done.
If it was not already clear to members on the government benches, it certainly was clear after they visited their ridings over the weekend and heard from ordinary Canadians the sense of outrage they felt about the violation of the very promise, the very essence of Canada's health care system, namely, dividing the victims into the deserving and the non-deserving, dividing the victims into categories of have and have not, and shutting out of our health care system those who had no ability to control the conditions that resulted in their being infected with hepatitis C. It is a health condition with which many will live for the rest of their lives and to which many will lose their lives in the months and years ahead. The fact of the matter is that it goes to the very essence of being a Canadian to ensure that people get the health care attention they need when they need it, and that means recognizing that we share a community and societal responsibility for that.
Today it is clear that the federal minister and the provincial and territorial ministers will meet again. We want to plead today with the health minister and his colleagues to ensure that the victims of hepatitis C have representation at the table.
They are the ones that understand the devastating effects of hepatitis C. They are the ones that understand what a toll it is taking not only on their lives but on their families. They are the ones who need to be given voice and an opportunity to ensure this is not just another round of false hope but in fact becomes an opportunity to ensure that justice is done.
Some may dwell in the days ahead on why some members of the House did the wrong thing when the opportunity was presented to them a week ago. Others may dwell on the question of what motives account for various governments changing their minds.
Let me say I think that all 301 members of the House have a responsibility, as my colleague from Saskatchewan has already said, to work together to set aside the recriminations, to set aside the imputing of motives and to ensure that justice is done on the basis of decency and compassion.
We have seen the incredible courage of hepatitis C victims over the last weeks and months. In case we need any reminder of what we are doing here, what our responsibility is and what unites us as members of the House, let me briefly quote from a letter received today from one of the spokespersons on behalf of the Hepatitis C Society. Jo-Anne Manser wrote:
I don't fear death—I know that I'll walk straight into the arms of God who loves me as His precious child. So it matters not that my Prime Minister and health ministers think so little of us now.
But, I do fear for my children who must grow up in this, so please stay strong and continue to fight for truth, justice and compassion in Canada—not only for victims of the tainted blood disaster, but for our kids.
You are in my heart and prayers always. Hopefully, one day we can all heal from this painful process and then have the courage to forgive.
That was a note written obviously with a very strong sense of compassion, not just concern about her own circumstances as a mother of young children but a sense of compassion for all families of the victims of hepatitis C. It was written not just to express appreciation for the fact that members of the House have remained in solidarity with those victims, but I choose to believe that it is a message to all 301 members of the House.
We have a responsibility now to move forward. We have a responsibility to include the victims of hepatitis C through their representatives of the Hepatitis C Society in the process of working together with the different levels of government to find a solution, a fair solution that will compensate those who through no fault of their own find that their health has been jeopardized and in far too many cases their lives foreshortened.
Let us accept that as a challenge to all members of the House. Let us see it as a reminder of why our constituents sent us to Ottawa, why they entrusted to us the responsibility to work together to find solutions to problems that Canadians face and to ensure that at the end of the day the Canada that has had compassion and caring at the very heart of our being is the Canada that emerges from this disastrous chapter in Canadian health history.
I move:
That the motion before us be amended by inserting after the word “House” the word “strongly”.
