By December 2, 1961, the drug had already been pulled from the German and British markets, after several doctors expressed concern that it was causing severe birth defects in babies born to mothers who had taken the anti-nausea sedative.
These are known as teratogenic effects that cause abnormal fetal development. In the case of thalidomide, it resulted in visible malformation of the limbs, missing arms and ears, deafness, defects in the face including deformities of the eyes and palate and malformations of the gastrointestinal system and heart.
Thalidomide also caused miscarriage, which means it’s unknown how many deaths it caused in totality, but it’s said that less than 40% of the babies affected by this disturbing tragedy survived into adulthood.
The government of Canada was well aware of these safety concerns about the possible teratogenic effects of thalidomide, but it wasn’t until March 2, 1962, that Canadian authorities decided to finally withdraw it from the market. Thalidomide was legally available in Canada for three full months after being withdrawn from Germany.
Canada’s health minister, J.W. Monteith, in 1963 acknowledged the duty of the government to support victims of thalidomide. While class actions and other litigation were pursued globally, here in Canada victims were forced to settle out of court with gag orders, resulting in vast differences in compensation amounts.
Since Canada brought thalidomide to market despite warnings, and then delayed its withdrawal, many argued the authorities had a moral duty to adequately compensate victims.
To do so, the government of Canada then introduced the Extraordinary Assistance Plan or EAP in 1991. It gave a one-time payment ranging between $56,000 and $83,000 to 109 thalidomide survivors who fulfilled the eligibility criteria.
Faced with debilitating disability and increased financial burden, the program pivoted after advocacy efforts by the group Right the Wrong, where the Thalidomide Survivors Contribution Program (TSCP) was developed in 2015, which further compensated survivors through annual pension and other settlement money.
Then, in 2019, the Canadian Thalidomide Survivors Support Program (CTSSP) was developed, which is ongoing automatic compensation for those left with the debilitating fallout of this once touted as a safe and effective drug. It provides annual payouts geared toward disability level of up to $100,000.
Sadly, it appears the government and Health Canada did not learn anything from this horrific tragedy or the fallout of it that continues to plague roughly 100 Canadians nearly 70 years later.
They shamelessly promoted — and continue to promote — novel, still in clinical trial modified RNA drugs referred to as vaccines as safe and effective, including for pregnant and breastfeeding women, based on misrepresented data and severely underrepresented clinical trials that were ongoing and then unblinded a mere two months into the experiment.
According to the last update by the government of Canada, COVID-19 vaccine “Adverse events have been reported by 58,712 people” up to and including January 5, 2024 — that’s the date when the agency stopped reporting. The government decided they “will no longer be updating this online report.”
How transparent.
Meanwhile, the pandemic-born Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP) coincided with the rollout of these injections, which were authorized through an interim order that waived liability for the rushed-to-market products.
As of its last reporting date at the beginning of June, it has received 2,628 of those nearly 59, 000 adverse event claims, with only 183 of them approved by an elusive medical review board.
That’s if those suffering injuries can navigate the extensive paperwork, multi-level filtering and bloated bureaucracy to get their injury recognized and diagnosed.
This shows that there is the very real potential for vaccine injuries to mirror the thimerosal crisis. The last few years have shown that vaccine injuries are significantly underreported, misdiagnosed, or misattributed.
The quiet extension of the VISP program in Budget 2024, with $19 million allocated in 2024/25 and $17 million in 2025/26 (of which more than half of funds are funnelled to consultants) suggests it might become a permanent fixture in the federal budget as the fallout continues.