Health committee  I wouldn't know specifically. We don't see each case. That's Crawford's role. I am personally aware because individuals will then sometimes write to Health Canada to appeal their case and they have included letters from geneticists. I think there's one, perhaps two, where what I

Health committee  I'm not sure if I have the number handy of how many, but I think the latest birthdate we have in terms of a confirmed survivor is 1964. So we have accepted people who were born after the drug was withdrawn.

Health committee  I think I would respond similarly to how I did previously on that. I'm not in a position to speculate on what the program could be or what a different program might look like.

Health committee  Nothing is done perfectly, certainly not at my hands. None of us had a great knowledge or expertise about thalidomide when we took on this program. It's been quite eye-opening. The only lesson learned that I have had, frankly, is how uncertain we still are, 60 years later, about

Health committee  The program in 1991 goes back to a registry that was created when the federal government worked with provincial and territorial governments back in the early sixties when the thalidomide crisis broke, to identify babies born with thalidomide and put their names on a registry. Tha

Health committee  I'm trying to recall the timeline, quite frankly, concerning when the actual report was published, because the event was in 2014, which is around the same time as the parliamentary motion. I wasn't personally involved in the design of the program, but I know that at the time of d

Health committee  With all respect, I'm not really in a position to answer that question by speculating on changes. What I can do today is explain how the program is run and answer questions about the existing program.

Health committee  I don't have any specific knowledge. It's outside my area of expertise. I know other drugs were used to treat nausea in pregnant women, but they didn't necessarily have the same effects.

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  Absolutely. To my knowledge, thalidomide was, as we say in English, a watershed moment for drug approval. All regulations, the drug approval process and the clinical trials— Sorry. I don't know the specific French vocabulary.

Health committee  I feel bad for our guests. It was definitely one, if not the one, of the watershed moments in terms of clinical trials, and regulation of samples, distribution of drugs, and approval of drugs. For sure there have been significant changes since those days.

Health committee  I'm trying to decide who will answer you.

Health committee  Okay, go ahead.

Health committee  Exactly. I can assure you that, before establishing the program, we tried to find out how other countries handled this matter. The experiences are quite varied. We looked closely at the United Kingdom's model. Finally, we decided that we needed to meet the same criteria impleme

Health committee  Okay. I want to respect you, since you asked the question—