Federal settlement for thalidomide survivors gets court’s approval
Posted May 8, 2020 2:25 pm.
Last Updated May 8, 2020 4:27 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA — A federal judge has locked in a compensation program for Canadians born with birth defects because of the drug thalidomide.
Thalidomide was approved in Canada to treat morning sickness in pregnant women for less than a year in the early 1960s but it was available unofficially for several years both before and after that.
The drug caused major problems in fetuses, particularly shortened and malformed limbs, and in 1990, the Canadian government set up one program to help people living with the consequences.
In 2015, the federal government set up another, but it came under attack for demanding applicants prove they were eligible by supplying detailed documentation of things their mothers did more than 50 years before.
After people who had been refused under that program filed a lawsuit, a third attempt in 2019 offered more money and somewhat looser standards roughly doubling the 135 people eligible for payments under the previous programs.
The ruling by Federal Court Justice Michael Phelan locks in those payments and eligibility rules, and sets up an appeal process for people who are still denied compensation under the terms of a settlement between the government and the thalidomide victims.
