Conservative MP Dean Allison said that since announcing an inquiry into reports from Canadians who say they were injured by COVID-19 vaccines, hundreds of people have come forward to share their experiences.
“Hundreds of Canadians from across the country have reached out to share their experiences. Many have spoken about the physical, emotional, financial, and personal challenges they continue to face today,” Allison told reporters on July 9 on Parliament Hill. “Not everyone is comfortable testifying publicly, and we completely understand that. But we still want to hear your story.”
The Allison Inquiry, first announced on June 4, is described as a non-partisan inquiry that will hear from Canadians injured by COVID-19 vaccines. The hearings, to be broadcast live from Sept. 8 to Sept. 11, may include testimonies from experts.
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, 58,000 adverse events from COVID-19 vaccines have been reported, including more than 11,000 classified as serious. The data has not been updated since January 2024.
Allison told reporters that he wanted to promote compassion both for Canadians who suffered from COVID-19 or suffered from a COVID-19 vaccine injury.
“This is not about relitigating every decision made during the unprecedented public health crisis,” he said. “It’s not about assigning blame. It’s about listening. It’s about learning.”
Allison said several MPs have been contacted by constituents “looking for answers and looking to be heard,” prompting the Allison Inquiry to email every MP “inviting them to engage with this process.”
Michelle Worton, who co-founded CANrise19 to support Canadians with COVID-19 vaccine injuries, told reporters that she suffered a “severe onset of neurological and systemic symptoms” following her second COVID-19 vaccine dose in 2021, and her health has “continued to deteriorate” over time.
Worton said she was forced into medical retirement at 46 years of age, ending her career as a dental hygienist.
Worton said that while Canada’s Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP) was intended to help Canadians harmed by the vaccines, it had trapped them in a “bureaucratic system that has failed the very people it was created to help.”
The federal government took over VISP in April 2026 amid problems with the program, which was renamed the Vaccine Impact Assistance Program (VIAP). A 2024 Epoch Times investigation found that Canadians trying to use the program were experiencing long wait times, poor communication, and insufficient payouts for injuries, while a 2025 investigation by Global News found that $33.7 million of the $50.6 million that the third-party administrator Oxaro received for VISP had been spent on administrative costs alone.
A citizen-led inquiry into Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic also heard from vaccine-injured Canadians in 2023. The inquiry’s final report recommended that information related to institutions’ actions during the pandemic should be made publicly available, independent audits should be conducted, and institutions should “face criminal and civil penalties for their actions,” if appropriate.
