Skip to main content

Terry Bolton says he was denied compensation because he was unable to prove that his mother took thalidomide when she was pregnant with him.Andrew Ryan/The Globe and Mail

The Conservatives are calling on the Liberal government to compensate about 25 Canadians who say they are thalidomide survivors and were denied compensation because they cannot prove their birth mothers took the drug.

Conservative MP Gordon Brown says he knows of about 25 "forgotten survivors" who were denied government compensation after they failed to meet the eligibility requirements for a federal thalidomide program. Under a historic compensation package finalized in 2015, Health Canada pays annual compensation of between $25,000 and $100,000 to 122 Canadian thalidomide survivors.

"Nobody anticipated that these people were going to be unable to produce documentation that their mothers had taken thalidomide back in 1960, 61, 62," Mr. Brown said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. "In some cases, the doctors are long gone. The records have been destroyed or are long gone.

Read more: The fight of their lives: After years of neglect, Canadian thalidomide survivors make a plea for help

"I'm hoping that the [Health] Minister will at least give these folks some hope before Christmas."

Thalidomide was marketed as a treatment for morning sickness and insomnia. It was available in sample form in Canada in 1959, and, unlike the U.S. government, Ottawa approved the drug for prescription use in 1961. Contributing to the scandal in Canada was the fact that government officials allowed thalidomide to remain available until March, 1962, three months after authorities in Britain and Germany took it off their shelves because of its link to birth defects.

To be eligible for compensation, applicants have to meet one of three requirements: be listed already on an existing government registry of thalidomide survivors; provide proof they received a settlement from the drug company; or proof that their birth mother used the drug during her first trimester of pregnancy.

Mr. Brown said many of the forgotten survivors he has met appear to be thalidomide survivors.

"When you meet with these people and you see them, they clearly have all of the signs [of thalidomide]. They are all of the age of the people who were victims of this drug," Mr. Brown said.

"Not only do they have outward physical deformities, they also have internal issues."

Terry Bolton, who lives in Mr. Brown's Eastern Ontario riding, says he was denied compensation because he was unable to prove that his mother took thalidomide when she was pregnant with him. Mr. Bolton was born on April 11, 1963, more than a year after the drug was pulled from the Canadian market. He said his mother never admitted taking thalidomide, presumably because she was ashamed.

"When I was born, she did not allow my father to see me for the first four days I was alive because she was afraid Dad was going to leave her," he said.

Mr. Bolton said two of his mother's sisters told him five years ago – after his mother died – that she took the drug while she was pregnant. He says he was unable to prove that because many of his family's medical records were destroyed in fires at his doctor's office and a pharmacy in the late 1970s or early 80s. He gave the limited medical records he had to Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc., an independent, third-party service provider that oversees the implementation of the government's thalidomide compensation program.

"A lot of it was doctor's notes that you could just barely make out reading," he said.

"There was the word 'thalidomide' on there with a question mark beside it."

He said he received a letter from Crawford saying he did not meet the criteria for compensation.

The Thalidomide Victims Association of Canada, which negotiated the government compensation package on behalf of survivors, did not respond to a query about whether the approximately 25 people who say they were denied compensation are associated with their organization.

Mr. Brown sponsored a petition in the House of Commons earlier this year calling for an expansion of the criteria for thalidomide compensation to include an assessment by a medical professional who specializes in deformities caused by the drug if applicants cannot meet other criteria. Mr. Bolton says he is convinced this kind of exam would demonstrate that thalidomide caused his condition.

Health Canada said it is considering all input regarding the thalidomide compensation program, including the petition's recommendation that it be expanded. However, the department noted that not all malformations are caused by thalidomide.

"Each year, a certain number of children are born with spontaneous or otherwise unaccountable malformations similar to those caused by thalidomide," Health Canada spokesperson Eric Morrissette said in a statement.

"According to the World Health Organization approximately half of all birth defects cannot be linked to a specific cause. This makes identifying thalidomide victims a complex issue."

In the absence of a definitive medical test for thalidomide, Mr. Morrissette said Crawford uses an "evidence-based process to assess individuals to determine whether they were eligible for financial support."

Thalidomide survivor Mary Ryder says the effects of the drug led to a life of mental and physical challenges. A group of survivors is asking Ottawa to take further action, after they say they each received $125,000 in compensation.

The Canadian Press

Interact with The Globe