Widow looking for answers after Quebec man dies in Texas Ironman competition
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Canadian Blood Services says it is making plans to submit an application to Health Canada by the end of 2021 to replace the blood ban with a sexual behaviour-based screening model for all donors.
“We plan to make a submission to Health Canada by the end of the year and work is underway to build the submission,” said spokesperson Catherine Lewis in an email to CTVNews.ca.
The blood donation organization says it will be recommending that the current three-month deferral period for gay and bisexual men and well as some other folks in the LGBTQ2S+ community be removed. Instead of denying these donors if they have not been abstinent for three months, donors would be asked a series of screening questions based on their behaviour rather than their orientation.
According to the organization, their CEO Graham Sher stated the goal publicly for the first time on Friday at a board meeting, and their online information page on the donor restrictions has been updated to include the target.
The federal government has been under fire for failing to not follow through earlier on their long-stated promise to remove the blood ban, which has widely been described as discriminatory and not based in science.
Key cabinet ministers responsible for the file have dismissed calls for them to intervene and change the rules unilaterally, stating that they were waiting on submissions from Canada’s two blood agencies, Canadian Blood Services (CBS) and Hema-Quebec.
While the blood agencies’ independence is “a cornerstone” in the eyes of the government, since taking office, the Liberals have funded research projects that were aimed at helping bolster the evidence-based decision-making process, including studying donors’ eligibility criteria and alternative screening processes.
There had been an expectation that research would wrap in early 2020 but last month Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) told CTVNews.ca that research was “ongoing,” with some results expected sometime “in 2021.”
Between 2013 and 2019, Canada’s blood donation policy has changed three times, gradually evolving from a five-year ban on giving blood to the current three-month deferral period. The policy started in 1992 as an outright lifetime ban following the tainted blood scandal that played out in the 1980s and 1990s and saw thousands of Canadians infected with HIV after receiving donor blood.
There is currently a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal inquiry probing the ban and Health Canada’s role in upholding it as the regulator that approves any blood donation screening criteria changes.
In May, CBS made a submission to Health Canada for a “pilot project” to begin using a behaviour-based screening system for plasma donations this fall. Health Canada said it would aim to review the submission within 90 days.
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
The world is seeing a near breakdown of international law amid flagrant rule-breaking in Gaza and Ukraine, multiplying armed conflicts, the rise of authoritarianism and huge rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar, Amnesty International warned Wednesday as it published its annual report.
A photographer who worked for Megan Thee Stallion said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee.
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would force TikTok's China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban, a contentious move by U.S. lawmakers that's expected to face legal challenges.
People living near a wildfire burning about 15 kilometres southwest of Peace River are being told to evacuate their homes.
The U.S. Senate has passed US$95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden after months of delays and contentious debate over how involved the United States should be in foreign wars.
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.