Sameen Amjad
Staff Writer
The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), which represents over half a million students across Canada, has started an “End the Ban” campaign against the current blood donation policy that they say discriminates against men who have had sex with men (MSM) as far back as 1977. 
The controversial policy, implemented by Canadian Blood Services (CBS) in 1985, restricts MSM from donating blood to protect blood recipients from receiving HIV-infected blood.
Sandy Hudson, CFS-Ontario chair, said that the ban is “discriminatory because it’s based on identity and not on risk.” Ron Vezina, the spokesperson for the CBS, said that the policy is not discriminatory because it is based on statistics.
The ban was disputed in 2002 when the CBS brought the case against Kyle Freeman, who lied about his sexual history when donating blood and failed to mention his relationship with his male partner of eight years.
Freeman, in turn, countersued CBS for having a policy that is outdated, discriminatory and goes against Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Alastair Woods, external coordinator for Trans Bisexual Lesbian Gays Allies at York (TBLGAY), said that since the 1980s “It’s not only gay men who get infected with HIV. The fastest infection rates globally are actually young women between the ages of 20 and 25.”
Vezina said that it is not about which social group is the fastest growing in getting HIV, but which group has the most cases of having HIV. While some students were divid- ed on the issue, many agreed that the current policy is discriminatory. “No, I don’t think it’s far,” said Maria Sirosh, a first-year undecided major. “Overall, I think just because of their sexuality, [MSM] shouldn’t be forbidden from donating blood.”
According to the AIDS Commit- tee of Toronto, between the years of 1985 and 2008, men constituted 84.6 percent of all HIV-positive peoples in Ontario, whereas women made up 15.4 percent of overall positive cases. The statistics do acknowledge that the number of the HIV-infected women has been increasing over the years. In 2008, females comprised 25 percent of all HIV-affected adults in Ontario.
On Sept. 9, Madam Justice Catherine Aitkin ruled that Freeman is obligated to pay $10,000 to CBS for lying on his blood donation application.The judge also ruled that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not apply to the CBS because it is too distant from the government in terms of its bureaucratic structure and its status as a non-governmental organization.
Vezina called the judge’s ruling a “consistent application of the law.” “We are a non-for-profit organization and the Charter can only be applied to either government organizations or organizations acting on [the] government’s behalf,” he added.
Bruce Ryder, professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, told the Globe and Mail on Sept. 9 that this court ruling “is very dangerous because it makes it so easy for governments to avoid their Charter responsibilities. All they have to do is create an arms-length body and refrain from dictating policy. Presto! Charter-free zone.”
With files from Globe and Mail
