Settlement Agreement

http://www.pre86post90settlement.ca/PDFs/SA/hepc_settleagreement.pdf

or you can call the Administrator at 1-866-334-3361 to have it mailed to you and to receive your claim number.

If you need help filling out your claim, call the Administrator, or if you prefer, call your lawyer or advocate.

Press release: FAMILY MEMBERS

Toronto – On February 5 and 6, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice heard submissions to approve a proposed $1B compensation agreement for people infected with the hepatitis C virus (“HCV”) through blood received in Canada before 1986 and after June 30, 1990. The Government of Canada announced their intention to compensate victims in July of 2006 but details of the proposed settlement only were revealed in December. Amongst the claimants to the proposed agreement are a class of victims known as “secondarily infected”. It includes spouses and children infected with HCV from blood contact with a transfused person who was given the virus through the blood system. However, it will exclude any other immediate family member infected through contact in the home.

One such person is Gary Gagnier. His brother was infected with HCV through one of several transfusions he received as a child and young adult following a playground accident. The injury lead to regular and profuse nose bleeds that Gary often helped to clean up. Growing up, the brothers would also share tooth brushes and razors, unaware that one had been infected with the potentially fatal virus. Recent research has shown that the hepatitis C virus can be passed amongst family members through blood to blood contact by the sharing of personal items like tooth brushes and razors. As a result of bad health experienced in the 1990s, both were tested for HCV independently and discovered they were each infected. The criteria used for the transmission of HCV to secondarily infected in the proposed settlement agreement was not based medically on the transmission modes of HCV at all, but by the transmission of HIV, which has a much higher incidence of being passed from mother to child and through sexual contact.

Both brothers received $10,000 for their suffering when litigation against the Canadian Red Cross was settled in 2001. Mr. Gagnier was shocked when he learned, just prior to Christmas, that the much anticipated settlement announced by the Prime Minister would not include him. Repeated calls to the lawyers for the class action resulted in no answers, so he retained his own lawyers in January and wrote to the Prime Minister hoping he could be included. Instead, on Tuesday morning, Mr. Gagnier found himself in Court, still left out of the deal and watching as his lawyers pleaded with the court to recognize the unfairness of compensating some infected family members but not others while counsel for the Attorney General of Canada vigorously opposed the motion to add these victims to the $962 million fund. They had argued on Monday that the Court should agree that any surplus funds left over when all approved claims are paid out will automatically be returned to the government.

Mr. Gagnier now suffers from late stage liver disease and is partially disabled from the effects of hepatitis C. He has tried treatment but it did not work. “My health and life have been devastated by this disease” said Mr. Gagnier. Referring to his brother he noted, “If I was his father or son I would be in the deal but instead I’m his brother so I am being shut out”. Mr. Gagnier expressed hope that the federal Government would agree to broaden the definition of “Secondarily Infected” so other family members like him would get some much needed help.

After hearing arguments on the motion, Justice Warren Winkler reserved his decision on the matter while hearings on the federal deal take place in Montreal, British Columbia and Alberta until the end of February.

For further information please contact:

David Baker, LL.B., LL.M
Bakerlaw
dbaker@bakerlaw.ca
672 Dupont St., Suite 400
Toronto, ON M6G 1Z6
Phone: (416) 533-0040 ext. 222
Fax: (416) 533-0050

John C. Plater
RR#1
Heathcote, Ontario N0H 1N0
(519) 599-3093

Jacqui Lemmon
jacqlemon@rogers.com
(416) 836-5527