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Daniel Freiheit Sworn: ATIP Exposes VISP Contract Redactions

Day 2 · 3:42:08 · Shawn Buckley · Jasmeet Grewal · Daniel Freiheit

  • ⚖️ Ontario corporate lawyer Freiheit affirms he will tell the truth and describes years helping vaccine-injured clients with VISP claims.
  • 📄 A 2022 ATIP returned the federal–administrator contract with appeal-process and transparency sections blanked out; even the schedule title was redacted.
  • 💸 Unredacted budget lines showed roughly 63 % of program funds allocated to administration—far above WSIB or motor-vehicle funds.

Counsel introduces lawyer whose access requests revealed structural problems inside the compensation scheme.

← Q&A: How Has Hart’s Injury Affected His Family Daily Life? | Closed Budget and Litigation-Management Appeal Design →

Transcript

Shawn Buckley · 3:42:08

Thank you, Thor. So our, our next witness is Daniel Freiheit, and Daniel, welcome. Um, Daniel, we'll first of all put you under oath. So do you Daniel Freenheit, promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Jasmeet Grewal · 3:42:28

I solemnly affirm to tell the truth.

Shawn Buckley · 3:42:31

Thank you, Daniel. Just by way of introducing you, you are a member of the Law Society of Ontario. You are a certified specialist in corporate and commercial law. You also do a lot of regulatory and advisory practice. You're a graduate of Western Law and Ivey Business School, and you've done a lot of advocacy relating to public health and public safety. And that includes you've acted for a number of people that have had issues with the Vaccine Injury Support Program. And so we've invited you to share with us about your experiences, the trials of your clients, and what you've found out through access to information requests.

Jasmeet Grewal · 3:43:11

So I was assisting people in accessing compensation through the Vaccine Injury Support Program.

Daniel Freiheit · 3:43:19

And in that regard, I did make an Access to Information Act request early on, probably around June of 2020.

Jasmeet Grewal · 3:43:26

I got back the Access to Information Act request around June of 2022. A schedule to that document was redacted, and I thought it was quite relevant to understanding how the program worked. Um, even the title of the document itself was redacted. What wasn't redacted were the paragraph headings. And so, um, a lot of what I'm saying, by the way, is, is, uh, available on my, on my X account. I'm going by recollection here, but one of the paragraphs related to the appeal process under the Vaccine Injury Support Program, and one of the paragraphs related to transparency. So I thought it was very unusual that these, that these portions of the document were redacted.

Daniel Freiheit · 3:44:05

So I did file an appeal with the Office of the Information Commissioner.

Shawn Buckley · 3:44:09

So can I just slow you down? So, um, because some people won't understand, so access to information, we have an act called the Access to Information Act where the government is legally obligated to provide us with information, and you basically request information on that program and you get a copy of the contract between the federal government and this third-party provider But blanked out are things like the appeal process. And so you're— why would this be blanked out?

Jasmeet Grewal · 3:44:41

Well, and right, and the website for the Vaccine Injury Support Program, which has now been removed, which has been reported, that website didn't provide that much information about the relationship between the Public Health Agency of Canada and the third-party providers to how that worked. So the Access to Information Act disclosure was helpful except for those redactions, but it did provide some insight into the budget. And all this is leading up to how it affects how people apply to the program and how it impacts the application process. It disclosed the heavy allocation to the administration, administrative costs. I think it's been reported it was over 60, 70, 63% around of the program budget was going to the administrator, which is very high compared to other programs.

Shawn Buckley · 3:45:27

And that was actually in the contract that was disclosed in the contract, right?

Jasmeet Grewal · 3:45:31

That's the amount.

Shawn Buckley · 3:45:32

So there's some— when people criticize publicly, wow, that this percentage went in, well, the government knew that in advance. They contracted so that two-thirds of the amount would go to administration and only a small amount would go to compensation.

Jasmeet Grewal · 3:45:46

So other comparable programs, what I'm seeing is the Worker Safety and Insurance Board program of Ontario The allocation, I think, is closer to 15% to 20% as to the program cost versus— there's also another motor vehicle fund in Ontario, and the program cost there is again closer to 30% at most from the websites I recall seeing. So yes, this was a high administrative cost for this program. And to be fair, reviewing these records does take a lot of time. There are extensive documentation looking at the reports reports, the scientific reports, to establish causality. It is a, it's a program that was in its infancy, and so it would be generally typically higher, but that was surprising to see as a layperson.

Shawn Buckley · 3:46:29

You know, I'll just, um, we had a witness here earlier, um, I think it was Michael Oates, who was suggesting, you know, the program really should be designed where, you know, the default is we're going to compensate you and let's find a reason not to. So, but in any event, you're telling us that at the very beginning, this program, by contract, the federal government knew that almost, you know, most of the money would be going to administration.