Health Canada Blood ban

Under the new rules, donor screening questions will no longer focus on gender and sexuality, but rather high risk activities, such as engaging with new partners ...

“I feel like I don’t even have to wear my cloak and creepy white masquerade mask to these things any more!” Under the new rules, donor screening questions will no longer focus on gender and sexuality, but rather high risk activities, such as engaging with new partners over the last three months. “A discriminatory, unjust, outdated and unscientific rule been finally stricken from the books.

Canadian Blood Services says Health Canada has approved its request to end the policy that restricts men who have sex with men from donating blood for three ...

"The current approach was discriminatory and wrong. Canadian Blood Services says Health Canada has approved its request to end the policy that restricts men who have sex with men from donating blood for three months after being sexually active. Canadian Blood Services to end blood ban for men who have sex with men

The new policy will screen all donors, regardless of gender or sexuality, for “high-risk sexual behaviours.”

“We recognize that trust-building is an ongoing process, the change in the policy being just one step toward that,” he said. “The sexual activity targeted by the residual questions being asked will disproportionately impact gay, bisexual and queer men,” Ko said in an interview. Health Canada has said previous reductions of the ban did not lead to increases in HIV-positive blood donations. “It just continues to be frustrating,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming. (Quebec plans to end its own similar ban by next spring.)

A policy change years in the making, on Thursday Health Canada approved Canadian Blood Services' submission to eliminate the three-month donor deferral ...

After a nearly four-month investigation, heavy fines are being slapped on some of the infamous Sunwing 'party flight' passengers in late December, including for not being vaccinated. After a nearly four-month investigation, heavy fines are being slapped on some of the infamous Sunwing 'party flight' passengers in late December, including for not being vaccinated. With Sept. 10 picked as the date for when the Conservative Party of Canada will have a new leader, time is ticking for prospective candidates and their teams to get into place. Trudeau announced Tuesday morning that the confidence-and-supply agreement has been brokered, and is effective immediately. “Thirty years ago my first partner died of, of Aids. And in those intervening years, in those dark years there was huge stigma and I understand why Canadians were worried… Canadians can have confidence in their blood system and gay men or men who have sex with men can now donate blood and save another person’s life. The federal government has been under fire for years, including from LGBTQ2S+ opposition MPs, for failing to follow through on their 2015 promise to lift the ban. Canadian Blood Services has been consulting with stakeholders including the LGBTQ2S+ community and patient groups throughout this process. In 2016, the five-year deferral period was reduced to one year, and then in June 2019, the current three-month deferral period came into effect. That meant, rather than outright refusing donations from men who had sex with men, or the “MSM” community as some have coined it, donations would be accepted only if the donor had not been sexually active for five years. The policy started in 1992 as an outright lifetime ban following the tainted blood scandal that played out between the 1980s and 1990s and saw thousands of Canadians infected with HIV after receiving donor blood. It will mean that when all donors are screened before rolling up their sleeves, they’ll be asked whether they have recently engaged in anal sex in the context of new or multiple sexual partners within the last few months.

Health Canada has approved the Canadian Blood Services' submission to eliminate the three-month donor deferral period for men who have sex with men.

“But we will always continue to fight for an end to discrimination, to move the yardsticks forward.” Canadians can have confidence in their blood system and gay men or men who have sex with men can now donate blood and save another person’s life. Without them, the government would not be moving this important change forward," said the NDP MPs, vowing to assess the new policy once it comes into effect. “This will have far reaching consequences on a number of things... Discrimination like this should not take this long to resolve.” In 2016, the five-year deferral period was reduced to one year, and then in June 2019, the current three-month deferral period came into effect. That meant, rather than outright refusing donations from men who had sex with men, or the “MSM” community as some have coined it, donations would be accepted only if the donor had not been sexually active for five years. Canadian Blood Services has been consulting with stakeholders including the LGBTQ2S+ community and patient groups throughout this process. “Thirty years ago my first partner died of, of Aids. And in those intervening years, in those dark years there was huge stigma and I understand why Canadians were worried… The policy started in 1992 as an outright lifetime ban following the tainted blood scandal that played out between the 1980s and 1990s and saw thousands of Canadians infected with HIV after receiving donor blood. CBS has said this evidence, risk modelling based on Public Health Agency of Canada data, and also international research informed their 2021 submission. It will mean that when all donors are screened before rolling up their sleeves, they’ll be asked whether they have recently engaged in anal sex in the context of new or multiple sexual partners within the last few months.

Canadian Blood Services had asked Health Canada to allow it to scrap questions about gender or sexuality when screening potential donors and ask about higher- ...

Trudeau said Thursday that the policy should have ended at least a decade ago. The deferral period dropped to one year in 2016 and then three months in 2019. NDP MPs Randall Garrison and Blake Desjarlais, who are the critics for LGBTQ rights, said in a joint statement that “finally allowing men who have sex with men to donate blood is a long-overdue victory for men who have sex with men, community members and allies who have worked tirelessly for years to push the government to act.” It was reduced to five years in 2013. If yes, they would then be asked whether they have had anal sex with any of those partners. Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, who shared that his first partner had died of AIDS 30 years ago, said Thursday the change in donation rules now meant that “my blood is as good as anyone's blood in this room.” He called it a step forward in human rights and “ending stigma.”