OTTAWA | Opposition parties are outraged that the federal government refuses to compensate thalidomide survivors based on an algorithm, without even meeting with them.
“It’s appalling,” scolds MP Luc Thériault, Bloc Québécois spokesperson for health.
“When the state decides to set up a compensation program, it has a responsibility to treat people humanely with humans who are able to guide them,” he says.
The newspaper Monday published the testimony of Jeanne d’Arc Otis, resident of Beauport, who was excluded from the Canadian Thalidomide Survivors Support Program (PCSST) because an algorithm judges that it is “unlikely” that her multiple malformations were caused by the pill given to pregnant women to alleviate nausea.
“Ms Otis has suffered all her life and is now being denied the decency of an in-person interview with government officials. It is truly unacceptable that he is being denied fair compensation for his pain and suffering, even after the Liberals supposedly addressed these issues in the 2018 budget,” criticizes Conservative MP Pierre Paul Hus.
Long and complex process
Mr. Thériault explains that there are “very few people who go through all the stages” of the sorting process put in place by the PCSST. Ms. Otis was ejected at the end of the second stage of the process. The third is the only one that provides for an evaluation by a medico-legal committee, indicates Mr. Thériault.
“It is absolutely necessary that Mrs. Otis can speak to someone, he insists. It presses. There isn’t much time left.”
Survivors have until June 3, 2024 to submit their request. However, according to several testimonies from survivors received by The newspaperit takes years and a lot of energy to go through all the stages of the process, without any guarantee of success.
“As they get older, their condition gets worse and they need more help than they can afford,” says Paul Hus.
“It’s awful from a human point of view, deplores Mr. Thériault. You’ve spent your life with a defect, and then the burden of proof is on you. It doesn’t make sense.”
The Ministry of Health did not respond to our many questions, including how many compensation claims it had received and how many were accepted since the establishment of the PCSST in 2019.
As for the Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos, his cabinet indicates to wait for his officials to answer us.
“The minister’s office has asked the ministry to provide it with all the information relating to the file as soon as possible. We will be able to say more when this information has been shared with us”, we wrote to the Log.