Greg Thompson

[Hepatitis C, March 31st, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the minister left the House yesterday without speaking to the hepatitis group which is the sickest and has the highest mortality rate. He did not speak with them. He did not meet with them.

Does that close the door forever on his talks with these people? Is he simply going to keep it slammed? We are talking about unilateral action on behalf of the government to compensate the sickest group of the hepatitis C victims.

[Hepatitis C, March 30th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, in the gallery today are members of that hepatitis C group who were not compensated.

The question for the minister is this. Instead of sneaking out the back door as he did in Toronto, is he prepared to meet them immediately following question period?

[Hepatitis C, March 30th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, according to the minister in his previous answer to me he said that they identified the principle on which they acted. I think everyone on this side of the House has told him that principle is obviously flawed.

I am quoting the minister now from February. In the Globe and Mail in February he said “This compensation package is about compassion, about fairness and appropriate compensation to people who were injured through no fault of their own”. How can he actually stand up in his place and say that this package is fair when it excludes 40,000 Canadians who are hurting?

[Hepatitis C, March 30th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I agree—and this is probably the only thing we agree on—that this is not a partisan issue.

The fact is that the only reason the minister is using the U.S. model is because it is a model of convenience. That model of convenience allows him to fit within the timeframe of 1986 and 1990, therefore leaving out 40,000 innocent victims.

He is talking about fairness. I want those 40,000 victims compensated. It is as simple as that. He has the constitutional and moral responsibility to do that. Will he act?

[Hepatitis C, March 30th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Health is wrong. There was a test available and it was being run in Germany prior to 1986, in fact in 1982, to screen out what is now know as hepatitis C, but the department did not act on it.

As a consequence, we have 40,000 people left outside the compensation package. Will the minister now act unilaterally to compensate these innocent victims?

[Health, March 26th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I am going to hold the government to its very words in this House today in regard to this issue. Previous members on this side of the House have asked the same question and have had the same nonsense from the government. It knows today what is in that package.

I ask the minister, will the government stand true to its words today in this House and if that package does not include those innocent victims, will the government make sure that that happens?

[Health, March 26th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, Justice Krever recommended that all victims of tainted blood be compensated. Now we in this House know that the government will exclude the victims outside the timeframe of 1986 to 1990.

I ask the government, does the Deputy Prime Minister support a compensation package that will exclude 40,000 Canadians, innocent Canadians of a tainted—

[Health, March 11th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the way we are headed, these innocent victims are going to be in court for 10 years because of lack of leadership by the health minister. Most of them will be dead before their families receive any compensation at all.

Is the health minister going to continue to cave in to the finance minister or is he going to exercise leadership at the cabinet table? Last week he acknowledged that Canadians are going to have to come to his rescue and lobby the government. What does he want, 65,000 victims marching on Parliament Hill to get action or will he do it on his own?

[Health, March 11th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I want to correct the health minister. In 1991 the government did act unilaterally to compensate the HIV victims. He is wrong on that.

What we are asking is for him to exercise the same moral responsibility and political leadership that has to be there to meet this pressing need.

Will he exercise that moral responsibility and political leadership and compensate these innocent victims?

[Health Care, March 10th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I have raised a number of times in the House the compensation issue for victims of hepatitis C. I have repeatedly asked the minister to act unilaterally to save a great deal of hardship.

The minister is on the record as saying, and I have to believe him, that he does not want to see this issue go to the courts because it will be very costly and it will be a very protracted legal entanglement.

I am asking the minister today, on compassionate grounds, will he act unilaterally on behalf of these innocent victims?