Amid ongoing questions about why the policy that prohibits sexually active gay men as well as some other folks in the LGBTQ2S+ community from donating blood has been slow to evolve, new documents state that Health Canada has ordered two-year intervals between when the donor screening criteria could be updated.
This request from the federal health agency—which regulates Canada’s blood donor agencies Canadian Blood Services and Hema-Quebec—was detailed in court submissions from both Health Canada and Canadian Blood Services.
“As before, when Health Canada approved the change in the deferral period, it required mandatory post-implementation monitoring to continue for at least two years after the change to assess the impact of the shorter deferral on the safety of the blood supply, and to be reported to Health Canada on an annual basis,” said CBS in what’s called a “Statement of Particulars.”
The agency’s documents show that post-implementation monitoring was done with the 2016 and 2019 updates to the blood ban. CTVNews.ca has asked Health Canada for comment. The evolutions to the policy over the last several years were the result of Health Canada approving regulatory submissions from CBS and Hema-Quebec, which included risk modelling showing it would be safe to change the blood donor screening criteria, narrowing the window of time that has to pass between a sexual encounter and donating blood.
At the heart of the contention over the current policy is what appears to be a struggle over who has the power to change it. It’s this debate that is currently playing out in court as part of Karas’ case, which his lawyer said has been further bolstered by this evidence.
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