Blood Clinic leads to Controversy

March 9, 2021, Queer students entering Bloomfield Centre were met with a common but unexpected sight. Canadian Blood Services (CBS), who due to the Health Canada restrictions on donations from men who have sex with men (MSM) enforce what many describe as a discriminatory ban on blood donations from Queer men, had set up a donation clinic in the MacKay room.

This clinic came as a surprise not only to students, but also to the staff who had been advocating for changes to the donation policy and the presence of CBS on campus.

Claydon Goering, StFX Gender and Sexual Diversity Advisor (GSDA) went to social media with their concerns, saying on an Instagram story that there had been a “lack of notice” from StFX, adding that “a statement is quite literally the least [StFX] could have done to protect” the mental health and well-being of Queer and Trans students.

Health Canada currently enforces donation eligibility rules that do not allow men who have had sex with men to donate blood within three months of the sex. According to CBS, “men who have sex with men account for the largest proportion of new HIV infections reported in Canada,” and therefore can pose a risk to the blood supply. Other countries, including the United Kingdom have made a shift towards risk-based eligibility requirements, which screen for risky sexual behavior instead of screening for sexual partners. The Trudeau government promised as part of their 2015 platform to end the ban altogether and transition to a behavior-based model.

Goering started advocating for StFX to stop renting space to CBS shortly after beginning their term in 2019. Goering’s concern was two-fold; there is a principled contradiction between trying to be an inclusive campus and supporting a discriminatory blood ban, and a practical problem where Queer students are confronted with a reminder of the discrimination they face throughout their lives.

Goering intensified their advocacy in the first term of the 2020-2021 academic year, when the blood clinic was located in the MacKay room. At that point, they reached out to StFX Vice President Students Elizabeth Yeo and Megan Fogarty, Human Rights and Equity Advisor (HREA) to discuss the problem. Goering found support at this meeting for the proposal to move CBS off campus.

The issue was left on the back burner as the expectation from all those involved was that CBS wouldn’t be back on campus this year. This changed in January when Goering found out CBS would be hosting a blood clinic in the MacKay room in March. At this point, the advocacy started again, and resulted in a meeting between Yeo, Fogarty, and StFX VP Finance and Administration Andrew Beckett late in the month.

According to Beckett, this meeting saw Yeo and Fogarty advocating for CBS to be asked to move their collection off campus. Beckett described himself as “reluctant” to make this request. He described how due to StFX renting Saint Ninian’s Place for classes, they had “displaced blood services” from one of the only viable off campus locations.

Shortly after this meeting, it appeared as though the problem had corrected itself for the time being. With conflicting bookings between CBS and the COVID-19 vaccine clinic, it appeared that the blood clinic would be moved or cancelled. At this point, there was a break in conversations with the next blood clinic not being expected until the Summer.

At some point following this meeting, CBS rescheduled their booking through conference services. This information was largely unknown to the staff involved in these conversations until March 8, the day before the blood clinic began, when Beckett received a message from CBS confirming that he as a regular donor would be giving blood at the clinic. By then, according to Beckett it was “too short a timeframe” to make any changes.

After a “quick huddle” with Fogarty and Goering, the university put up screens to close off the MacKay room, reducing the visibility of the donation site. Beckett admits that the delay was in notifying the Goering was wrong. “We owed it to Claydon [StFX GSDA] to tell them more than a day before.”

Going forward, StFX is changing their approach to working with CBS. For future blood clinics, Beckett believes that StFX should be a location of “last resort,” until the eligibility requirements change, but admits that if CBS is unable to book an off-campus space, he would have a hard time saying “no” to their booking. “It’s about balance” said Beckett, clarifying that the current restrictions on MSM are not needed to ensure the quality of the blood supply, but that the lifesaving capacity of blood donations are difficult to outweigh.

On the question of a statement from StFX, Beckett says a statement hasn’t been requested at this point.

From Goering’s end, the end goal remains the same; they want StFX to stop renting space to CBS and release a statement against the discriminatory eligibility requirements.

Goering has recently filed a human rights complaint against the university relating to this matter.