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Conservative MP Dean Allison, who represents Niagara West, gave an update on Parliament Hill this morning on his month-old Allison Inquiry into vaccine injuries, and the response, he says, has been overwhelming.

"Hundreds of Canadians from across the country have reached out to share their experiences," Allison told reporters. 

On Thursday's Rebel Roundup livestream, Sheila Gunn Reid and Tamara Ugolini discussed the update, calling the inquiry five years overdue but welcome all the same.

Allison stressed that the goal of the inquiry is compassion, transparency, and accountability. 

"The individuals sharing their experiences with the Allison Inquiry are not statistics," he said. "They are mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, friends, and neighbours. Their experiences deserve to be documented, examined, and understood."

He also took what Tamara characterized as a pointed jab at his colleagues across the aisle, noting that emails have now gone out to every member of Parliament informing them that their own constituents may want to take part. 

"That seems like a bit of a sideswipe at the Liberals," Tamara said on the program, adding she believes some Liberal MPs have been discouraging constituents from participating because the inquiry is "a bad look" for the party that promised Canadians the vaccines were, in the government's own words, safe and effective.

Tamara, who has reported on vaccine injury compensation failures for years, says she has seen the discouragement firsthand. She referenced a Liberal MP's email response to a struggling constituent seeking help with the federal Vaccine Injury Support Program. The MP told the person to simply wait for their appeal, effectively declining to intervene at all.

Sheila noted the official record likely understates the damage substantially, because so many doctors never reported reactions in the first place.

"There are a lot of doctors who would not report vaccine injuries for fear of repercussions," she said, adding that blood clots, strokes and sudden allergic conditions circulated quietly among Canadians who feared professional consequences for speaking up. "Everybody knows somebody who has a vaccine injury who's not even captured in the scope of what we're talking about here."

Among those who did come forward alongside Allison was Michelle Worton, a former dental practice owner from British Columbia, who was forced to sell her business and pay out of pocket for brain surgery in the United States after Canada failed to deliver on its promises of support.

"I live with vision loss, nerve damage, loss of feeling throughout my face and my limbs, and ongoing white matter brain lesions," Worton said. "I experience difficulty maintaining an upright position, balance impairment, and relentless neurological pain. Sharp electric shocks, burning sensations, zapping pain, numbness occur every single minute of every single day for five years."

Worton said she now spends the overwhelming majority of her life confined to her home. "I spend ninety per cent of my life homebound, bedbound," she said. "This injury stole my independence, my quality of life, time we can never get back, and replaced it with uncertainty and loss."

Sheila and Tamara both pointed out that legacy outlets have shown little appetite to cover Worton's testimony or the inquiry broadly, recalling past coverage that mocked and demonized unvaccinated Canadians rather than examining injuries.

Sheila pointed to past headlines suggesting unvaccinated family members be excluded from holiday gatherings as evidence of the media's role in the original messaging campaign.

"You think the Toronto Star is going to participate in fairly covering what Dean Allison is trying to do?" she said. "Absolutely not."

Allison's office says it will continue accepting stories from Canadians, whether shared publicly or privately, as the inquiry proceeds.