The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) will take over the troubled Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP), after a Global News investigation revealed serious flaws in its operation and administration practises.

PHAC launched a compliance audit into Oxaro Inc., the Ottawa consulting firm contracted by the federal government to administer the program, in late July.

It came following the broadcast and publication of a three-part investigation Global News investigation into VISP in July, which revealed allegations and complaints by applicants and former workers about Oxaro’s flawed delivery over the past four years, despite $54 million in taxpayer dollars going to the program.

Guillaume Bertrand, director of communications for Health Minister Marjorie Michel, confirmed that a funding agreement with Oxaro will end on March 31, 2026, and the government will then transition the administration of VISP to PHAC.

“This is also part of our commitment to significantly reducing reliance on external consultants, while improving the capacity of the public service to hire expertise in-house,” Bertrand said.

“We will publicly share further details on how the program will be delivered under PHAC when they become available.”

Oxaro did not respond to an emailed request from Global News for comment before publication.

But on Thursday afternoon, a VISP spokesman identified only as “William, Case Escalation Manager,” told Global: “At this time we do not have any comment to make.”

VISP was announced by the Liberal government in 2020 to provide financial support to anyone who is seriously and permanently injured as it embarked on the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, the largest such effort in the country’s history. It decided to outsource its administration the following year.

The five-month Global News investigation that prompted the outcry revealed that:

• Oxaro had received $50.6 million in taxpayer money; $33.7 million has been spent on administrative costs, while injured Canadians received $16.9 million. Updated Health Canada figures released last week show the company has now received $54.1 million and spent $36.3 million on administration costs, with just $18.1 million paid to injured Canadians
• PHAC and Oxaro underestimated the number of injury claims VISP would get, initially predicting 40 per year and then up to 400 valid claims annually. More than 3,317 applications have been filed — of those, more than 1,738 people await decisions on their claims
• Some injured applicants say they face a revolving door of unreachable VISP case managers and require online fundraising campaigns to survive

2:41 ‘Slap in the face’: Calls for investigation into Vaccine Injury Support Program

• Some VISP applicants and former staff said Oxaro was unequipped to deliver fully on the program’s mission to deliver “timely and fair” support, and questions emerged about why the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) chose this company over others, while internal documents suggested poor planning from the start

Global News obtained internal government documents that suggested poor planning from the start, as both PHAC and Oxaro underestimated the number of applications the program would get.

In response to the revelations by Global News, four opposition Conservative MPs called for a Commons committee investigation into the VISP, and a pivotal non-profit health foundation also said the program needs an urgent overhaul.

PHAC then agreed to expedite its audit of the company, asking agency staffers to recommend new ways of delivering the services to ailing Canadians.

“PHAC is currently accelerating its audit of Oxaro and Oxaro’s management of the Vaccine Injury Support Program, and the Agency will provide recommendations on alternative delivery models for the program,” Emilie Gauduchon-Campbell, a senior communications adviser responsible for issues management in the health minister’s office, said in July.

By nature, twins have an unbreakable bond.

It was no surprise Connie Claeys and Cortney Drover did everything together: Growing up in Saskatchewan, moving to Alberta and even working at the same place.

The pair of identical twins have experienced life through a similar lens. In their late 20s, they faced their biggest challenge yet — side by side.

“I’m actually the oldest twin by five minutes… I feel like I’ve kind of done everything first,” Drover explains.

Drover was just months away from turning 30.

“I actually had a lump under my armpit… being that young, it’s just not even on your radar… I’ve never been, honestly, so shocked in my life.”

Drover began eight rounds of chemotherapy, as well as undergoing a double mastectomy and radiation therapy.

News of the diagnosis compelled Connie, who was symptom-free, to also get checked.

“The next thing I knew, I was getting called into the clinic because I also had breast cancer,” Claeys recalled.

Claeys credits her sister for helping find the cancer so quickly, and the two sought answers as to how this could happen to both of them.

“We got tested for the BRCA2 gene, which we found out we both carry. That does give you a significantly higher chance of having breast cancer,” Claeys said.

“It answered our questions. As sad as it is that we both have (breast cancer), we could accept it more,” Drover explained.

After several years, both women thought they were in the clear of the disease.

A little more than five years after Drover’s initial diagnosis, she found another lump on her neck and was diagnosed again, this time with Stave 4 metastatic breast cancer  — spreading beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes to other organs.

It rocked the tight-knit family once again, and Claeys says she carried a lot of guilt watching her sister begin the fight again.

“When Court got diagnosed in 2020 and I was cancer-free at that time, I would say that was the hardest two years of my life.”

But in 2022, Claeys would resume her fight as well.

“I was actually just at an appointment with Cortney, just supporting her — our oncologist asked me to be part of a trial that prevents metastatic breast cancer from occurring.”

Claeys agreed, and underwent a CT scan to ensure everything was clear.

“I ended up having a lump on my left lung.

It’s a battle that’s lasted 10 years and will continue to take place for the rest of their lives.

The sisters already thought they were inseparable, but the experience has brought them even closer together.

“When I’m having a bad day and saying ‘My medication has made me feel like this,’ she gets it because she has the exact same things happening in her body — the exact same emotions,” Drover said.

The two women live minutes apart from each other in Okotoks, Alta. They say they’re thriving but even today, their experience is somewhat different.

Drover struggles with the effects of medication more so than Claeys, who says she’s still symptom-free.

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“When you aren’t in chemotherapy and you have your hair and you don’t physically look sick, but inside you’re just feeling terrible… family and friends try to understand it, but they really just don’t get it,” Claeys added.

What hasn’t changed is their shared commitment to make the most of the little things in life.

“With my first diagnosis, or my Stage 4 diagnosis, we didn’t know if Christmas was going to be the last Christmas we would have,” Drover said.

“We never thought we’d get our first diagnosis, let alone another one after that… I think we just really cherish the little things now.”

“I find that the more years that pass, the scarier it gets,” Claeys said.

“Now you’re thinking that you were only given three to five years (to live), and you’re at three to five years now, are you nearing the end of your rope? But I think the advances in medication even since we first got diagnosed in 2015 have been amazing.”

Next month, the twins will do yet another thing together: participating in the CIBC Run for The Cure in support of the Canadian Cancer Society.

It will be the third appearance for both of them.

“I’ve seen the advancement in research since 2015 and since 2022,” Claeys said. “So I really just wanted to be a part of something that allowed us to fundraise and be a part of this advancement.”

While raising funds is the goal of the event, the twins say it’s so much more.

“It’s a lot about the community,” Drover said.

“Cancer can be a very lonely journey. You can feel like ‘Nobody understands me,'” Claeys said.

“To see all these people there… you’re like ‘I’m not alone.’ All these people are here for me and I’m here for everybody else.”

The CIBC Run for The Cure takes place in more than 50 communities across Canada on Sunday, Oct. 5.

“The run really is one day, a couple of hours… but it lasts forever. All of the funds that go towards this really do help breast cancer research. We’ve seen it first-hand.”

The study of data from more than 204 countries and territories between 2000 and 2023 found 44 per cent of people 15 years and older with diabetes are undiagnosed.

“It is a very alarming number,” said Lauryn Stafford, lead author of the study at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

According to the study’s findings, of those living with diabetes, about 56 per cent are aware they have the condition globally, but the rate differs depending on each country.

The rate of diagnosis sits at about 85 per cent in Canada, but there’s many factors that go into how many are diagnosed in a country.

“It depends on where people live but some of the main factors include not having access to normal health care, especially primary care, so people aren’t getting their regular glucose tests every year,” she said.

“There’s different socioeconomic constraints or maybe some people live in a rural area or in low- and middle-income countries where there’s just not a lot of health-care personnel, not a lot of diagnostic tests.”

The research also found that young people were less likely to be diagnosed with only about 20 per cent aware of their condition.

“Traditionally the prevalence or the frequency of diabetes rises with age and so approximately one in 10 adults, which is people over the age of 20 in Canada, have diabetes, but about one in five over age 65,” said Dr. Hertzel Gerstein, a diabetes specialist and endocrinologist.

But Gerstein cautioned that while rates are higher among older adults, those under age 50 are seeing an increase in diagnosis rates.

An article published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) in August 2024 found the annual incidence rate of Type 2 diabetes in Canada is 50 to 150 per 100,000 people aged 20 to 29 years and is “rapidly rising.”

4:20 Navigating diabetes during the summer travel season

While places like Canada have higher rates of diagnosis, many countries still recommend routine diabetes screenings for those 35 and older. Diabetes Canada says those 40 and over should be tested at least every three years due to higher risk, though it adds risk factors such as family history should also prompt screening.

Asked if screening should change for younger age groups, Gerstein said the best policy is for a health-care provider to use their clinical judgment, including looking for “yellow flags.”

“These yellow flags include things such as a very strong family history, if they happen to be overweight, but not really just overweight, if they happen to have a lot of extra weight in their abdomen and in their face, the so-called abdominal or apple-shaped weight distribution,” Gerstein said.

He added certain ancestry and ethnic origins can also have a higher rate of diabetes, saying the disease is more common at younger ages in people with South Asian or North African ancestry, as well as in Canada’s Indigenous people.

Going without diagnosis can be harmful to a person’s health, but BC Diabetes medical director Dr. Tom Elliott said it can be difficult to catch early enough.

“The first five years of diabetes is silent, there’s no symptoms,” he said. “During those silent five-plus years, the bodies are getting damaged, damage to the nerves, the kidneys, the eyes, the blood vessels.”

If left untreated or treated poorly, Diabetes Canada says the disease can cause kidney disease, heart disease and stroke, mental health issues, and nerve damage that could lead to infection and even limb amputation.

However, while “silent,” there are still things people can look for as a potential sign.

4:20 Navigating diabetes during the summer travel season

The organization says symptoms such as unusual thirst, frequent urination, blurred vision or weight gain or loss are common signs, but senior director of policy Laura O’Driscoll said those health issues can also be associated with other conditions.

“So it’s usually when all the symptoms come together, but really the best metric we have is the blood test,” she said. “And then sometimes a doctor will order more depending on kind of what your blood work comes back as.”

Even with recommendations for screening after age 40, O’Driscoll told Global News people should still advocate for their own screening if concerned.

“When you are getting blood work, just ask them to include in that your HbA1c, so that is your glucose levels or the sugar levels in your blood over a three month period and that gives a representation of whether or not you are at that pre-diabetes threshold or that Type 2 diabetes threshold,” she said.

—with files from Global News’ Amandalina Letterio

Doctors are calling for restrictions on sports betting ads, saying they are setting youth up for a future of problem gambling.

An editorial published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Monday says the ads are everywhere during sports broadcasts and that the legalization of online gambling has made every smartphone a potential betting platform.

Editor Dr. Shannon Charlebois says even though betting sites say they’re only for people 19 years of age and older, youth are being inundated with advertising that equates enjoying sports with betting.

She says child and teen brains are still developing and the constant exposure to gambling messages normalizes harmful behaviour that they can carry into adulthood

Charlebois says a bill to regulate sports betting advertising has been introduced in the Senate and if passed, would be a good start to addressing the problem.

She would like to see gambling advertising restricted during games and removed from social media platforms used by youth.

“There’s no limit on how many of these ads can be placed within a sports broadcast or how long they can be,” Charlebois said in an interview, noting that in addition to commercials, the names of sports betting platforms are projected onto football fields and hockey rinks.

Commentators for betting sites often have their own segments during breaks in the game.

1:02 Action needed to regulate sports-betting advertisements, expert says

“What’s very dangerous about this for children is that it’s normalizing a known harmful behaviour during an impressionable stage. And it’s really appealing in particular to youth who are genetically, biologically predisposed to enjoy risk-taking,” she said.

“I have seen people’s lives fall apart at all ages, from all walks of life, whether it’s an accountant with a career behind him, or a kid who’s just looking to maximize his college fund who then had lost it all within a matter of a few weeks,” said Charlebois, who is a family physician.

Dr. Shawn Kelly, an adolescent addiction specialist in Ottawa who co-wrote the editorial with Charlebois, said he mostly sees substance use among his patients, but he has started to screen for gambling behaviour because he believes it’s an emerging issue.

He said gambling addiction still carries a lot of stigma, so people try to hide it and can be hesitant to seek treatment.

Legally requiring bettors to be adults is not always an effective deterrent, Kelly said.

“There are certain age restrictions and identity verification attempts that go into these (betting sites), but youth have been buying alcohol for a long time, despite the age restrictions around that — and so where there is a motivated adolescent, a way will be found.”

Even if ads aren’t targeting youth, they still see them and are affected, said Kelly, who watches sports with his twin children.

“These ads are not directed at the nine-year-olds sitting with me but they are picking up on it.”

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

RICHMOUND – Provincial officials in Saskatchewan say parts of a former school that was serving as a compound for the self-proclaimed “Queen of Canada” and her followers have been declared unfit for human habitation, and the residents have been ordered out.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority says in an email that occupancy of the building in Richmound is prohibited under Section 22 of the Public Health Act, on the basis that the premises is a multi-person residence and is not connected to the municipal sewer system.

The email says an order was issued for anyone who was currently occupying the building to vacate, although it notes the order covers the building only, and not trailers on the site.

Police arrested the group’s leader, Romana Didulo, property owner Ricky Manz and 14 others on Wednesday in the village west of Regina, after obtaining a search warrant to enter the site.

All of the group were later released, but Didulo and Manz were rearrested on Thursday after being accused of breaching a condition to not contact one another.

The health authority says anyone who violates the order faces fines of up to $75,000 on a first offence and $100 for each day the offence continues.

“Since the police action taken at the former school premises in Richmound, Sask., earlier this week, the SHA has been actively involved in assessing public health risk posed at the site, in cooperation with the Saskatchewan RCMP and municipal authorities,” the health authority email stated.

“As of Friday September 5, 2025, SHA public health has gathered sufficient evidence regarding health concerns and compliance issues at this premises to determine there is a risk to public health safety.”

The authority said the order declaring the building, or parts of it, unfit for human habitation will remain in place until any deficiencies have been corrected to the satisfaction of a public health officer.

In an online video posted by the group Saturday, spokesperson Darlene Ondi, who appeared with Christopher Justin Maffenbeier, who was billed as “second prime minister of the kingdom of Canada,” said members were safe at a new location.

Ondi said the group were ordered to leave on Friday afternoon without any notice, and said they complied peacefully.

“It’s inhumane, it’s indecent, it’s unlawful,” she said.

Didulo and Manz are also accused of trying to intimidate a justice system participant earlier this year. Manz was arrested and charged in July with assaulting two police officers.

RCMP have said they obtained a search warrant after receiving a report that a person inside had a firearm. Officers seized 13 imitation semi-automatic handguns along with ammunition and electronic devices.

Many in Richmound have complained about the group being disruptive. In the summer, the village office closed its doors to the public outside prearranged appointments, citing harassment and intimidation towards staff.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2025.