Grieving Ontario father Dan Hartman contacted the newly federalized Vaccine Impact Assistance Program (formerly VISP), only to be told he must start the entire process over again.

After more than three years awaiting an appeal into the death of his 17-year-old son, Sean, who died in September 2021, one month after receiving his first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Dan has been told he must start all over.

After waiting THREE YEARS for his son’s vaccine death compensation appeal, some admin tells @Answers4Sean to just start again!

Is this what @GovCanHealth meant by “taking meaningful steps to better support Canadians with a serious and permanent injury”? pic.twitter.com/fYXLpA7VyV

— Tamara Ugolini 🇨🇦 (@TamaraUgo) April 10, 2026

At the time, COVID-19 vaccination was required for the teenager to return to the hockey rink he loved, during the height of sweeping and ruthless mandates.

On April 1, 2026, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) officially took over the Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP) from private contractor Oxaro and rebranded it the Vaccine Impact Assessment Program (VIAP).

The agency describes the move as “taking meaningful steps to better support Canadians with serious and permanent injury.”

Two weeks into the takeover, the reality tells a different tale.

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In a phone call with the new VIAP line, Hartman was instructed to reapply from scratch and resubmit all his documentation.

I called the same number shortly afterward and heard the same uncertainty, with a representative admitting that the program remains in transition for an unknown length of time.

Files from Oxaro have not been fully transferred, staff are still performing basic verifications, and there is still no timeline for when appeals lodged as far back as 2023 will be reviewed.

During Hartman’s call, it was confirmed that “real doctors and medical professionals” are now handling assessments, raising an obvious question about who was reviewing claims during the years taxpayers paid Oxaro to run the program.

There has been no shortage of mishandling with this program, and now the subsequent handover.

The moment the government assumed control, the program’s public statistics were quietly scrubbed from its website.

DISTURBING! After years of scandal and delay, the Public Health Agency of Canada has not only renamed the Vaccine Injury Support Program to “Impact Assistance,” but they’ve also scrubbed all of the data!

Thankfully, I have receipts pic.twitter.com/PTX0mCLQzz

— Tamara Ugolini 🇨🇦 (@TamaraUgo) April 6, 2026

Years of reported delays and ignored appeals under Oxaro have now been handed to PHAC, and families still remain in limbo with vague instructions to “call back in three weeks.”

This is not the support promised to Canadians who were repeatedly told “We’re all in this together.”

We all agree, vaccines save lives and will be key to defeating the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you haven’t already, get the shot!#VaccinesSaveLives pic.twitter.com/v42MghNHn9

— Annamie Paul (@AnnamiePaul) September 10, 2021

Despite submitting detailed questions to Health Canada’s media relations team and to Health Minister Marjorie Michel, no response has been provided.

Among the questions were a request for a clear timeline for the full transfer of all files from Oxaro; a firm date for reviewing long-delayed appeals; who adjudicated claims before “real doctors” were involved; current backlog figures and approval rates; why program data was removed during the transition; what specifically failed with Oxaro and what accountability measures are being taken; and whether the government has tracked if program delays have influenced claimants to seek Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), including any safeguards that may be in place.

Dan Hartman and every other Canadian family still waiting for basic answers have already waited long enough. Their lives were upended after they followed ‘the science.’

The federal government now owes them more than rebranding and bureaucratic bedlam.