Kimberly MacDougall lay in a hospital mattress beside her injured husband, Stephen, as his ultimate moments got here. She and their two youngsters held him as he took his final breath.
Stephen, 45, a service supervisor for a luxurious car dealership, had been preventing to dwell for weeks in Could 2021, however stopped struggling. She knowledgeable mates on social media that the person she beloved, extremely match and with no prior well being points, wouldn’t make it.
Exterior the window of his intensive care room in Peterborough, Ont., an impromptu group of mates quickly gathered to carry a vigil, in love and help.
“I noticed issues no person ought to see and I wasn’t outfitted to take care of,” MacDougall remembered 4 years later. “I watched them use the paddles on him. I watched them bag him.”
A uncommon opposed response to a COVID-19 vaccine left Stephen useless in his prime.
Kimberly MacDougall.
Patrick Capati / International Information
Ross Wightman, a former pilot and realtor, social employee Shannon Dupont, and kindergarten assistant Kayla Pollock additionally suffered life-altering accidents after their vaccinations.
These 4 individuals, and their households, have been amongst thousands and thousands of Canadians who rolled up their sleeves to get their photographs through the pandemic.
For his or her family members, communities and nation.
The most important public immunization in Canadian historical past lowered the unfold of lethal illness, saving the lives of hundreds of Canadians by mitigating the results of the virus and lowering emergency room admissions. For many, vaccines slowly introduced life again to regular.
However for a small group injured by their photographs, life by no means returned to what it as soon as was.
The federal government reassured the general public that severe negative effects have been doable, however uncommon.
There have been 11,702 reviews of significant opposed occasions following a COVID-19 vaccination, in line with Well being Canada. That’s equal to 0.011 per cent of the 105,015,456 doses administered as of December 2023.
As a manner to assist, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau introduced the Vaccine Damage Assist Program (VISP) in December 2020.
The trouble, which started six months later, aimed to help individuals who have been severely and completely injured by any Well being Canada-authorized vaccine administered within the nation on or after Dec. 8, 2020.
Authorized claimants may obtain lump sum harm or dying payouts, ongoing revenue alternative, and reimbursement of medical bills.
However as an alternative of the federal government working VISP, as is finished with related packages in america, the UK, France, and Germany, Canada elected to outsource the work.
In March 2021, the federal government employed Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Consulting Inc. — now referred to as Oxaro Inc. — to manage this system.
The challenges started quickly after it launched.
A International Information investigation has uncovered complaints that this system has didn’t ship on its promise of “truthful and well timed” entry to monetary help for the injured.
This five-month probe is predicated on greater than 30 interviews with injured and unwell individuals, former VISP staff, and attorneys who allege the hassle is being mismanaged, leaving claimants feeling offended, deserted, neglected, and even abused.
“They promised to deal with us,” MacDougall added. “They didn’t fulfil their promise.”
This International Information investigation additionally revealed:
Oxaro Inc., has acquired $50.6 million in taxpayer cash. $33.7 million has been spent on administrative prices, whereas injured Canadians acquired solely $16.9 millionPHAC and Oxaro underestimated the variety of harm claims VISP would get, initially predicting 40 per 12 months after which as much as 400 legitimate claims yearly. Greater than 3,000 functions have been filed — of these, 1,700 individuals are nonetheless ready for his or her declare to be determined.Some injured candidates say they face a revolving door of unreachable VISP case managers and fundraise on-line to outlive.Some say their functions have been unfairly rejected by docs they’ve by no means spoken to or met.Regardless of a long time of requires a vaccine harm help program, the federal authorities cobbled it collectively throughout a pandemic.
As International Information neared publication, a spokesperson for brand spanking new Liberal Well being Minister Marjorie Michel contacted the information group and supplied this assertion:
“These allegations are utterly unacceptable. The VISP helps people who find themselves susceptible and wish help. I’ve requested PHAC to discover a resolution that ensures a accountable use of funds and that individuals obtain the help they want. All choices are on the desk.”
Minister of Well being Marjorie Michel rises throughout Query Interval on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Monday, June 2, 2025.
Adrian Wyld / Canadian Press
Neither the corporate nor PHAC have been ready for the surge of claims that arrived, former staff say.
Workers have been too few and inexperienced to deal with all of them, different ex-staffers say.
One stated VISP operations have been affected by many “bottlenecks.”
Others described it as “chaos.”
Oxaro and PHAC declined interview requests.
In response to a 15-page listing of questions, the corporate stated, “The VISP is a brand new and demand-based program with an unknown and fluctuating variety of functions and appeals submitted by claimants.”
Learn the complete Oxaro assertion HERE.
“This system processes, procedures and staffing have been tailored to face the challenges linked to receiving considerably extra functions than initially deliberate,” Oxaro added. “Oxaro and PHAC have been collaborating intently to guage how this system can stay agile to deal with the workload available whereas respecting finances constraints.”
The complexity of the claims filed also can have an effect on processing timelines, Oxaro stated.
PHAC, in the meantime, stated it’s reviewing Oxaro’s five-year association to manage VISP, which is up for renewal subsequent 12 months.
Learn the complete PHAC assertion HERE.
The company additionally wrote that it’s weighing “issues raised by claimants and beneficiaries” and factoring in how different nations managed their respective packages.
Its purpose: be taught “greatest practices” elsewhere, and make sure the future Canadian program is delivered “in a good, environment friendly and cost-effective method.”
Don’t speak to Becky Marie Campbell about truthful and environment friendly.
Three weeks after her vaccination in April 2021, Campbell, a B.C. faculty trainer and mom of 4, started to really feel numbness in her legs whereas driving down the freeway.
Quickly, she was unable to stroll and was subsequently hospitalized.
Like a number of others who turned sick after photographs, the superbly wholesome and match Campbell was despatched for a psychiatric analysis when she raised the potential of a hyperlink between her vaccine and sickness.
British Columbia resident Becky Marie Campbell turned gravely unwell after her vaccination, however was denied help by VISP though her personal physician recommended her sickness was “almost definitely associated” to the shot.
Photos courtesy Becky Campbell
A physician later decided she was of sound thoughts.
As she ready to depart the hospital after a month-long keep, Campbell stated a employees member supplied her a second vaccine shot. She cried. She left in a wheelchair, trying emaciated.
Campbell then utilized to VISP in October 2021.
She racked up $20,000 in debt for therapies, medicines, mobility tools and physiotherapies throughout her tried restoration.
Campbell’s personal doctor stated her shot and sickness have been “almost definitely associated.”
A partial view of Becky Marie Campbell’s Vaccine Damage Assist Program utility, which was supported by her personal doctor.
Courtesy: Becky Marie Campbell
Unidentified VISP physicians, nonetheless, rejected her declare on Sept. 6, 2022.
They stated they discovered “no peer-reviewed medical literature” that recommended a “causal affiliation” between her vaccination and subsequent sickness at the moment.
When she acquired the information, Campbell burst into tears: “You didn’t name me, you had no appointment with me,” she stated, referring to the panel of three unidentified docs which VISP employed to guage her file.
“They weren’t a part of my case in any respect, they usually determined my destiny? That’s somewhat unfair.”
“I believed that residing in Canada, I might be taken care of,” Campbell stated.
“It wasn’t concerning the cash … It was about receiving help from my nation. As a substitute, I felt I used to be faceless,” Campbell stated. She didn’t attraction.
Mike Becker of B.C., skilled extreme ache, nausea, dizziness and large blood clots in his proper leg after receiving a vaccine in 2021. His proper leg is now bigger than the left. He’s on blood thinners.
Photos courtesy Mike Becker
Mike Becker understands Campbell’s anger and resentment.
VISP additionally rejected his utility, though ache and swelling in his leg started instantly following his vaccine shot and bought worse day by day till he went to the hospital 9 days later.
His leg sears with burning ache at evening from deep vein thrombosis, generally referred to as blood clots.
The situation induced his proper leg to swell like a balloon, 4 inches bigger than the left.
He now suffers from dizziness and may now not work as a carpet and furnishings upholstery technician. Becker has had 30 physician visits since his hospitalization in 2021, and takes blood thinners to keep away from dying.
Becker stated VISP denied him help as a result of his hospital hematologist didn’t file his blood platelet ranges, which might have confirmed causality between his vaccine and clots.
The VISP report, which included no physicians’ names, acknowledged Becker’s sickness got here shortly after his vaccination, however concluded the shot was “unlikely” to have induced it.
Nevertheless, VISP added a caveat: ought to the medical world’s understanding of such occasions evolve and new proof come to gentle, “this case needs to be revisited and reconsidered.”
In contrast to Campbell, Becker appealed. In November 2022, he knowledgeable his VISP case supervisor and despatched within the essential attraction paperwork.
No one then answered his emails for nearly two years, he stated.
Becker wouldn’t let it go.
Lastly, a VISP case supervisor responded by e mail. She knowledgeable him that his case had been mistakenly closed, in line with a duplicate of the correspondence obtained by International Information.
VISP had incorrectly recorded in its computer systems that there was no attraction, though his case supervisor knew Becker had appealed and filed the required paperwork.
“I’ve spoken with my supervisor and have requested that we fast-track your case in order that we are able to rectify this timelapse of your case,” the brand new VISP case supervisor informed him within the e mail.
Eleven months later, he says he’s nonetheless ready.
Becker calls VISP “a giant rip-off.”
“It’s not working to assist individuals injured like me.”
Phyisicians noticed bother coming
Some consultants say issues may have turned out otherwise.
For 40 years, physicians and public well being officers in Canada had been calling for a federal, no-fault authorities vaccine harm help program. All different G7 nations, besides Canada, had one.
Dr. Kumanan Wilson had tried to influence the federal authorities to launch a vaccine harm help program in Canada for years however was unsuccessful till the COVID-19 pandemic slammed the nation.
Trevor Owens / International Information
Amongst these stressing the necessity for such a program was Dr. Kumanan Wilson, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of the Bruyère Well being Analysis Institute. His analysis focuses on immunization and pandemic preparedness.
Earlier than COVID-19, Dr. Wilson stated he had “a irritating set of discussions” with the federal authorities. Making a program, he stated, “stored dropping as a precedence.”
Dr. Wilson stated he warned officers about different nations’ experiences with the packages.
“You don’t need to stand this stuff up proper in the course of an emergency,” he stated, noting it doesn’t sometimes finish nicely.
A lot of VISP’s present woes might need been averted if solely it had begun earlier, Dr. Wilson stated.
Kimberly MacDougall of Peterborough, Ont., has by no means spoken publicly about her husband’s dying till now. Her ache and struggling are simply seen on her face.
Kimberly MacDougall misplaced her husband after he suffered a extreme opposed response to his COVID-19 vaccine.
Patrick Capati / International Information
MacDougall’s husband, Stephen, then 45, died from myopericarditis post-COVID vaccine, leaving her a younger widow of two kids, then 9 and 12.
She acquired the utmost dying profit below PHAC tips, an quantity equal to about three years of Stephen’s wage.
Nonetheless, she believes the sum that PHAC and Oxaro paid out is unjustly low. Stephen anticipated to work 15 or extra years within the luxurious automobile enterprise.
He had deliberate to fund their kids’s college educations and was a rising star in his world who was being headhunted.
A household picture of Kimberly MacDougall, her late husband Stephen MacDougall and their kids throughout happier occasions.
Courtesy of Kimberly MacDougall
As a group chief, Stephen had inspired many individuals to get vaccinated, however a sequence of disastrous occasions adopted his immunization: the myopericarditis was a lethal irritation of each his coronary heart muscle and the liner outdoors it that claimed him in weeks.
MacDougall plunged into grief and trauma.
A household buddy employed lawyer Lori Stoltz to file MacDougall’s VISP declare.
The VISP ready this brochure to elucidate the method of making use of and getting monetary help to individuals injured by COVID-19 vaccines.
International Information
Whereas VISP brochures promote that this system will “proceed to help you for so long as wanted,” there was a cut-off time for MacDougall and her youngsters.
Along with the dying profit, this system stated it might solely pay for sufficient grief remedy to cowl weekly periods for MacDougall and their kids for somewhat over three months.
What’s extra, MacDougall stated, VISP would solely pay $100, roughly half the price of every go to.
That’s when Stoltz wrote a blistering letter to VISP, saying she was “shocked” by this system’s “obvious institutional indifference” to the younger household’s “struggling and wish for monetary help.”
VISP then conceded it might refund the complete value of every session. However this system dug in — 15 visits solely.
“After which my youngsters are alleged to be high quality?” MacDougall stated, voice breaking. “I’m alleged to be high quality?”
She has been unable to return to work as an elementary faculty trainer.
MacDougall thinks VISP lacks humanity and is “shameful.”
As she mourned her husband’s dying, she defined, a VISP case supervisor requested she get copies of his post-mortem report and dying certificates.
“It bought to some extent the place every part was a battle. I didn’t have any struggle left in me. And that’s form of the place I’m at, that’s how I’ve moved ahead,” MacDougall stated. “I don’t need to struggle anymore.”
Toronto lawyer Jasmine Daya referred to as for a Vaccine Damage Assist Program in November 2020, a month earlier than the official authorities announcement.
Now, she and different attorneys harshly criticize this system. Daya calls it “a sham.”
Lawyer Jasmine Daya wished the federal government to create a vaccine harm help program. Now, she thinks what was later created is a irritating “sham.”
Trevor Owens / International Information
She says her quite a few emails to VISP usually solely obtain generic responses.
“Generally these auto emails say, ‘As a result of excessive quantity, we’ll get again to you after we can,’” Daya added. “I would like to have the ability to do my job, which is to assist these people, and I can’t.”
Victoria lawyer Umar Sheikh additionally stated VISP is “extremely troublesome to take care of,” including its findings will not be essentially dependable or truthful to individuals, they usually take too lengthy.
A VISP brochure and its employees have informed candidates that the common declare can take 12 to 18 months to course of. However some have waited far longer.
Sheikh helps a number of claimants with VISP battles, together with Dan Hartman, an Ontario father who misplaced his 17-year-old son, Sean, in September 2021.
{The teenager} died alone in his bed room in the course of the evening.
The final picture Dan Hartman took together with his son Sean earlier than his sudden, unexplained dying after his vaccination.
Picture courtesy of Dan Hartman
Dan Hartman suffered emotional shock, taking break day work.
Three physicians from VISP rejected Hartman’s first declare in 2022, denying the daddy’s assertion that the vaccine was linked to his son’s dying.
Initially, a autopsy examination characterised the reason for dying as “unascertained.”
The VISP report famous the autopsy on Sean’s physique discovered “gentle R(ight) and L(eft) ventricular enlargement,” which a pathologist described as “not unusual in athletic younger males.” Sean was a hockey participant.
However the coronary heart enlargement led Hartman to consider his son had a uncommon opposed response, so he appealed the VISP resolution with new proof in Could 2023 and nonetheless waits.
Fed up, Hartman and Sheikh pressed VISP to elucidate its prolonged delays.
Victoria lawyer Umar Sheik helps a number of VISP claimants with their battles with this system.
Max Trotta / International Information
Based on an e mail International Information reviewed, VISP employees replied that they’ve had bother discovering a forensic pathologist to look at the late Hartman’s tissues.
Revisiting the case could affirm or disprove any causal hyperlink between the teenager’s vaccination and his dying.
Within the meantime, medical data of opposed reactions has elevated.
Final month, the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration informed vaccine makers to increase warning labels on COVID-19 vaccines that might spell out the dangers of doable coronary heart accidents that afflict males aged 17-26, like Sean Hartman.
Well being Canada issued a related warning for “youthful male adults and adolescents” in June 2021.
Nonetheless, Hartman waits.
Kayla Pollock waits, too.
After first making use of in 2022, Pollock’s VISP utility stays caught in “consumption.”
Her accidents haven’t been assessed, she says.
She makes use of a wheelchair due to her transverse myelitis, a situation that entails swelling of her spinal twine and the lack of decrease physique capabilities. Medical analysis has documented a whole bunch of circumstances of transverse myelitis following COVID vaccination.
On account of her sickness, Kayla is now not in a position to work.
Kayla Pollock says she suffered a vaccine harm that broken her backbone. She mailed her VISP utility in July 2022 and was informed it was misplaced. She resubmitted her declare and stated her case stays in “consumption” three years later. Coping with VISP has been “hell,” and a “nightmare,” she says.
Trevor Owens / International Information
She was a kindergarten assistant. Now, she receives Ontario incapacity help.
She misplaced her townhome. Her son’s father is now his major caregiver, and she or he sees their boy solely on alternating weekends.
Pollock stated issues are so bleak for her that she requires private help staff and has been supplied Medical Help in Dying (MAID). Within the absence of VISP help, she has been elevating cash on-line.
“Sadly, it prices me extra to be alive than if I have been useless,” Pollock says.
After ready for 3 years, she now not believes VISP will ever compensate her.
Authorized… but nonetheless outraged
Former pilot and realtor Ross Wightman understands the frustration, anger and desperation of individuals coping with the help program.
VISP accepted his harm claims, however Wightman stays enraged. He says he usually can’t attain anybody at VISP and has had 10 case managers work on his file.
Ross Wightman’s VISP utility was authorised. He says he frequently waits months for VISP medical expense refunds. This system is an unfathomable “dumpster fireplace,” he says.
Courtesy Nicole Wightman
Wightman, who lives close to Kelowna, B.C., was identified with Guillain-Barré syndrome after his vaccination and utilized to VISP in 2021. He acquired $270,000 in indemnities in 2022, changing into one of many first individuals to be authorised.
Guillain-Barré syndrome is a uncommon neurological dysfunction that has been linked to COVID-19 vaccinations. The situation causes sudden numbness and muscle weak point when the immune system assaults peripheral nerves.
Now not in a position to work, Wightman awaits a second reassessment of his accidents.
His spouse left her job to take care of him and their two younger kids full-time.
After the one-time harm award, he waited 20 further months to be authorised for a VISP revenue alternative profit in 2023. That profit is capped at $90,000 a 12 months — the utmost for all claimants — although he earned way more as a realtor and former pilot.
Requested about VISP, he likens it to a “dumpster fireplace.”
“I don’t know the way it may very well be carried out worse,” added Wightman.
“There have been occasions the place I’ve thought of not persevering with with a few of my therapies simply because I’m bored with incurring bills and consuming bills for such a very long time.”
As a substitute, he says the gradual tempo of economic help pressured him, for a time, to show to the “financial institution of household.”
Wightman said at one level that $12,000 in VISP funds have been deposited into his checking account, nevertheless it took him greater than 10 weeks to substantiate what that refund was alleged to cowl. VISP officers additionally stored him on tenterhooks for months, ready for $25,000 in different reimbursements, he added.
“Such poor communication and record-keeping undermine belief in this system and create further stress for individuals who rely upon it,” added
Mounting paperwork, mounting debt
As a social employee residing in Manitoba, Shannon Dupont thought she knew methods to assist susceptible individuals by a disaster. However she, herself, is now misplaced and alone, battling VISP.
Previous to her vaccine accidents, which occurred after every of her three injections, she had two jobs and made a median of $104,000 a 12 months.
Shannon Dupont, of Manitoba, shows all of the Vaccine Damage Assist Program paperwork, emails and varieties she’s gathered.
Melissa Ridgen / International Information
She says her employer mandated that she be vaccinated.
However Dupont suffered a stroke, Bell’s palsy, misplaced half her sight view in her left eye and dexterity in her arms. She developed an autoimmune dysfunction that gave her hives.
In September 2022, the provincial well being authority really helpful that Dupont obtain no additional COVID-19 vaccines. She will now not work.
In her dealings with VISP since 2021, Dupont says she has had 9 case managers whose letters, emails and varieties cowl her complete eating room desk.
VISP informed claimants like Shannon Dupont by e mail that they’d contact them “quarterly.”
Two years after she utilized, VISP authorised her for a one-time $24,294 harm payout.
Nevertheless, she believes VISP “missed a major quantity of my harm.”
She has since utilized for reassessment 4 occasions and sought refunds for medical bills.
Many vaccine-injured individuals have additionally requested for his or her circumstances to be reconsidered.
VISP now owes her $180,000, Dupont alleges.
As she waited, Dupont says she cashed in her investments and lived on bank cards.
In March, she lastly began receiving a VISP revenue alternative good thing about $3,700 month-to-month, however her battles proceed resulting from confusion between VISP and her well being insurer.
In December, VISP introduced the federal government program would now be her first payor, reversing its preliminary place.
She says that the insurer now needs her to repay $86,000 — cash she says VISP has not paid her.
Years of economic chaos with VISP have left Dupont anxious, overwhelmed, and feeling abused.
“They don’t deal with us as human beings,” she stated. “It appears like they’re ready for us to die after which they go away.”
Oxaro declined to touch upon any particular circumstances, saying its claims administration course of “ensures that each one circumstances are handled pretty and with the identical care, respect, and due diligence.”
Individuals who say they’ve been damage by vaccines must fill out an utility type earlier than their declare may be evaluated.
PHAC
Oxaro added that its month-to-month invoices to the federal government embody paperwork and particulars, that are all reviewed and authorised by PHAC.
PHAC stated it “takes the issues raised by VISP claimants and beneficiaries severely.”
VISP claimants scoff on the suggestion.
Wightman stated all claimants are certainly handled the identical: “Badly.”
“I really feel like nobody cares,” Wightman stated. “I don’t assume they (the federal government) have any want to analyze VISP.”
“I’m anticipated to dwell on in a society that doesn’t care about me,” Pollock stated.
Associated story: Vaccine harm packages elsewhere additionally face challenges, criticism
NEXT: Inside VISP’s workplaces – A program in disarray
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