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TORONTO — Ontario’s New Democrats are demanding to know why the company that supplied watered-down chemotherapy drugs was operating with no oversight by the province.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says the consequences have been disastrous, with more than 1,100 cancer patients given watered-down drugs — some for as long as a year.

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She says the governing Liberals need to explain how they could let it happen and ask the ombudsman to investigate.

But provincial Health Minister Deb Matthews dismissed the call for an ombudsman investigation.

She says she’s appointed Jake Thiessen to review the province’s cancer drug supply, adding that he’s the right person with the right qualifications to do the job.

Thiessen is the founding director of the University of Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy and has previously advised both the Ontario and federal governments.

The government says he’ll be assisted by a working group that includes people from the affected hospitals, Cancer Care Ontario, Health Canada, the New Brunswick government and the Ontario College of Pharmacists.