Tainted Blood

Victims of Canada’s 1990s blood scandal were never told they were entitled to compensation.

An Ontario Supreme Court justice found this week that victims of Canada’s worst public health scandal to date were never formally informed that they were entitled to compensation. The thousands of hemophiliacs and transfusion recipients who received diseased blood transfusions in the late 1980s and early 1990s were not given notice about a $500,000 sum for victims who contracted blood-borne illnesses other than HIV, hepatitis C and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Justice D.M. Brown granted a one-year extension on the Other Transfusion Claims Trust, after only two individuals made claims in the last 10 years. 20,000 people contracted hepatitis C, and 2,000 people contracted HIV/AIDS in the tainted blood scandal.