Liberals must now sell a budget they say will help younger Canadians catch up
It's now up to the federal Liberal government to sell a spending plan it says will help younger Canadians catch up to their elders.
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.
It's now up to the federal Liberal government to sell a spending plan it says will help younger Canadians catch up to their elders.
With a variety of fiscal and policy measures announced in the federal budget, winners include small businesses and fintech companies while losers include the tobacco industry and Canadian pension funds.
A Celebrity Apex cruise to the Caribbean this month turned into a rocking Newfoundland kitchen party when hundreds of people from Canada's easternmost province happened to be booked on the same ship.
An Ontario nurse is fighting to recover tens of thousands of dollars in savings she invested in a mortgage company that has since been accused of operating without a licence.
British actor Hugh Grant has settled a lawsuit against the publisher of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid newspaper, The Sun, over claims journalists used private investigators to tap his phone and burgle his house, he said on Wednesday.
Ontario is going to see a big jump at the pumps later this week as gas prices in the province hit levels not seen in nearly two years, according to one industry analyst.
More details are expected this morning on arrests that have been made in connection with the gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport one year ago, Peel Regional Police say.
The father of a boy accused of stabbing two Christian clerics in Australia saw no signs of his son’s extremism, a Muslim community leader said on Wednesday as police began arresting suspected rioters who besieged a Sydney church demanding revenge.
For years, conventional wisdom in fitness culture has promoted the belief that stretching to become more flexible leads to better movement and injury prevention.
A Celebrity Apex cruise to the Caribbean this month turned into a rocking Newfoundland kitchen party when hundreds of people from Canada's easternmost province happened to be booked on the same ship.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.
A popular highway in Alberta's Banff National Park now has a 'no stopping zone' to help protect two bears.
B.C. resident Robert Conrad spent thousands of hours on Crown land developing an unusual bond with deer.
A Sudbury woman said her husband was bringing the recycling out to the curb Wednesday night when he had to make a 'mad dash' inside after seeing a bear.
A school teacher who took part in the Quebec version of the Survivor reality TV show took time off work to be a contestant is now out of a job.