Canada’s Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP), announced in 2020, was meant to encourage people to get COVID-19 shots and promised that in the rare case of a permanent, life-changing injury from a jab, the federal government would take care of them.
Five years and more than $50 million later, just 234 people have been helped, receiving a total of $18 million for lost income and medical costs, while thousands of others have been denied or are caught up in red tape, still trying to access the program.
A five-month Global News investigation last year found Oxaro, the private company hired to administer VISP, spent $34 million on administrative costs. Former employees described a high school-like atmosphere at the office that was supposed to be dealing with Canadians who suffered life-changing injuries from vaccines.
It’s unclear how much beyond the initial $50 million Canada has spent on the program.
In response to the investigation, the federal government announced it would end the contract with Oxaro as of March 31 and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) would take it over.
Laurie Irving was a nurse working on First Nations throughout northern Manitoba during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like other health professionals, she had to be vaccinated to work.
“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I’m not about all that, and I get the reason for vaccines,” Irving says, from her home in Grande Pointe, Man.
But she now lives with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults, essentially Type 1 diabetes, which her doctor says was caused by a COVID-19 vaccine.
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Kent Gillespie of Charlottetown, P.E.I., suffers too.
Doctors haven’t diagnosed what’s wrong with Gillespie, but his hands and feet swell and seize, making him unable to work as a cook. His doctor believes it’s a rare injury from a COVID-19 vaccine.
Despite the medical paperwork, both Irving and Gillespie have been rejected by VISP.
Both missed the three-year deadline to apply for the program as they made their way through bogged-down health systems.
“The government (needs to do) what they said they would do, which is support Canadians that got the vaccine and were injured or have an illness that’s lifelong and severe. They need to put their money where their mouth is,” says Irving.
Irving is still able to work but doesn’t have group insurance benefits to pay for her medical costs.
Gillespie is struggling to make ends meet on sick leave.
“I’ve just kind of more or less given up. If it wasn’t for my daughter, I’d be giving up on life,” says Gillespie. Income replacement from VISP would be a game-changer for him.
Shannon Dupont of Teulon, Man., is one of 234 Canadians receiving some income replacement, but fought for four years to get it.
“They just reduced the benefit with no explanation and can’t explain why or how they come to their calculations,” says Dupont, who worked as a social worker and was mandated to be vaccinated to work.
Her doctors say she suffered three injuries from three separate COVID-19 shots, including a stroke and Bell’s palsy.
Her days are filled with battling with Oxaro for every bit of help she can get from VISP, she says.
“Everything’s a big secret, and it’s very frustrating. You can’t still pick up the phone and talk to anybody,” Dupont says.
Not having a case manager to deal with directly is a frustration.
“They’re months sometimes behind on paying me. At one point, they owed me over $15,000 just on one prescription,” Dupont says.
She’s not convinced it will be any better when the federal government takes over the program, effective April 1.
Data up to June 1, 2025, shows the 234 people being helped by VISP have received $18 million, while thousands of other Canadians are in various stages of review to find out if they’re eligible for the program.
Oxaro declined to be interviewed and deferred questions to the Public Health Agency of Canada. Health Minister Marjorie Michel declined to be interviewed. Her office wouldn’t say if they’ll reconsider the three-year deadline that has left Irving, Gillespie, and others without support.