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Allison: Compassion, VISP Failures and Global Inquiries

Day 3 · 4:29:23 · Dean Allison

  • 💙 Allison affirms dignity for COVID dead, frontline workers and the vaccine-injured; first response must be listening, not dismissal.
  • 📊 He cites 58,000+ AEFI reports (11,000+ serious), 3,500+ VISP claims yet only ~250 compensated, with two-thirds of $54M to administrator Oxaro spent on overhead.
  • 🌍 Canada is an outlier among 30+ democracies that held COVID reviews; this forum lets ordinary Canadians be heard without re-litigating every decision.

Chair's statement on why the inquiry matters.

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Transcript

Dean Allison · 4:29:23

So thank you very much for being here today. Over the past several years, Canadians experienced the pandemic in very different ways. Many families lost loved ones to COVID-19. We had many frontline healthcare workers and our first responders carried an enormous burden And I want to thank all our first responders and our frontline healthcare workers for all the work that you do every single day. But there was also Canadians who suffered serious adverse events following vaccinations who feel their stories have not been adequately heard. Every Canadian deserves to be treated with dignity, respect, and compassion. When people come forward with concerns about their health, our first response should never be dismissal. It should be listening. The individuals sharing their experiences through projects such as the Allison Inquiry LIVE are not statistics. They are our mothers, our fathers, our sons, our daughters, our friends, and our neighbors. Their experiences deserve to be documented, examined, and understood.

Dean Allison · 4:30:23

Good public policy depends upon public trust. Trust is strengthened when governments and institutions are willing to ask difficult questions from the evidence wherever it leads and acknowledge when people have been harmed. My, my position is simple: compassion for those who suffered from COVID-19 and compassion for those who were injured following the vaccination, and a commitment to transparency, accountability, and giving people a chance to share their stories and to be heard. Canadians should never be afraid to tell their stories, and government should never be afraid to listen. Today I want to highlight two reasons why these stories matter and why Canada needs a more thorough examination of his pandemic response. First, we can't ignore the experience of Canadians who were injured following the vaccination. The government recognizes this, even the Liberals recognize this, and federal reporting through the public health has said that there's been over 58,000 adverse events reported in Canada, including more than 11,000 classified as serious.

Dean Allison · 4:31:23

The Federal Vaccine Injury Support Program had received more than 3,500 claims. More than 3,000 of those claims were deemed admissible for review, and so the government acknowledged that people had been injured, and yet only over 250 people have been compensated. Those numbers alone tell the story on just how slow and unfair the process has been. Many individuals tell us they have struggled to be heard, struggled to navigate the system, and struggle to obtain answers. There are legitimate questions about whether the support program is delivering the assistance efficiently. According to the report by the Globe and Mail last year, more than $54 million was provided to Oxaro, the company administering the vaccine injury support program, with more than $36 million being spent on administration. That's two-thirds, uh, spent on administration, while only a fraction of the claims have resulted in compensation. Whether one supports or opposes government pandemic policies I believe Canadians agree on one principle: if people have been harmed, they deserve compensation, support, transparency, and timely assistance.

Dean Allison · 4:32:27

Second, Canada's increasingly become an outlier among democratic nations when it comes to reviewing what happened during the pandemic. More than 30 democratic countries have launched significant COVID inquiries, including public commissions, parliamentary investigations, and independent national reviews. These include countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Italy, France, the United States, many G7 countries, and many Commonwealth countries have recognized an event of this magnitude deserves careful examination. These reviews have looked at government decision-making, lockdowns, mandates, policies, vaccine policies, economic impacts, public health preparedness, and civil liberties concerns. They have not undertaken these inquiries because they all had the answers. They undertook them because their citizens deserve answers. Yet here in Canada, one of the most significant events in modern national history has never been examined through a comprehensive national public inquiry with a level of transparency and independence that many Canadians believe is necessary.

Dean Allison · 4:33:30

That said, we're not proposing the national inquiry today. What we are proposing is something more immediate and accessible, an opportunity for Canadians to share their experiences tell their stories, and ensure that their voices are heard. As I've traveled across the country, and as my colleagues have traveled across the country, we have heard countless stories from Canadians. People have come to my office, people have written letters, they've sent emails. Some lost loved ones to COVID-19, some people lost businesses, some struggle with isolation and mental health challenges, others experienced severe adverse reactions following the vaccination. What they all have in common is a desire to be heard. That is why this conversation matters. This is not about relegating every decision, or re-litigating, sorry, every decision that was made during an unprecedented crisis. This is not about assigning blame. It's about learning. It's about listening. It's about ensuring that when the next public health emergency arrives, Canada is better prepared because we have the courage to examine what happened honestly and openly.

Dean Allison · 4:34:37

Canadians deserve transparency. Canadians deserve accountability. And above all, Canadians deserve to know that their experiences matter. The stories that we will hear in September are a reminder that behind every statistic is an actual human being. Their voices deserve to be heard. Many have suffered in silence and their country should be willing to listen. My call to action is, if you've been injured or someone you know has been injured, we'd love to hear your stories. I'd ask you to go to Allison Inquiry LIVE and fill out the forms, and then we hopefully, we can get a chance to hear your stories.