A decade-long ban preventing Canadian Blood Services (CBS) from using Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) space was lifted July 10 by a substantial majority vote of council.
In 2003, council decided to bar CBS from CUSA space for CBS’ “homophobic/gender-exclusive screening policies,” according to the previous policy.
Now, CUSA policy states that it acknowledges CBS policies are based on the “precautionary principle” and therefore excludes “men who have had sex with men in the last 5 years.”
When CUSA’s previous policy was created in 2003 CBS had a lifetime ban on blood donation for men who have had sex with men. On May 22, CBS announced the lifetime ban had been reduced to five years.
CUSA vice-president (student issues) Gina Parker introduced the successful motion. Parker said she is a volunteer with CBS sub-group OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network.
She introduced a similar motion to lift the ban last summer. That motion failed with 13 councillors voting against and 11 voting in favour.
Parker said she thinks more councillors supported the motion this year because the lobbying efforts outlined will “go a step further.”
CUSA will petition Health Canada, which regulates CBS, to accept CBS submissions that move towards removing the blood ban, according to the motion.
“Likely the next time [CBS] makes a submission, it will be from five years to one year,” Parker said.
Erica Butler, co-ordinator of the Gender & Sexuality Resource Centre and a CUSA councillor, voted against lifting CUSA’s ban on CBS.
“It makes no sense to me to claim in words to be against a policy, and then to contradict that by inviting an organization operating under that policy into student spaces,” Butler said.
Butler was not present at the meeting, but in a note presented to council she also took issue with the timing of the motion’s introduction.
“It’s incredibly unsettling to me that this motion is being pushed through in the summer months for a second year in a row,” her note, read at council by proxy Eddie Ndopu, states. “This is a pretty contentious student issue . . . we should be discussing it at a time when more Carleton students are actually present to share their views.”
Parker said she did not want to introduce two similar motions in one school year last year, or wait until the fall.
“We have to do these things earlier on, so that we can execute our mandates during the school year,” she said. “Whether we like it or not, we have to take into consideration what we don’t like about policies and take steps to changing them, instead of boycotting them.”
One effect of the new policy is that CUSA clubs and societies will now be able to hold blood drives and stem cell swabbing events run by CBS on CUSA space.
Shawn Humphrey, president of the Art of Manliness Society said blood drives help Canadians and the Carleton community receive blood that is often in short supply.
The Art of Manliness Society is interested in “helping men grow in both their personal lives, as well as in their relationships, school, and work,” Humphrey said.
“Blood drives are important to me because I suffered a severe sports injury in my early teens, and was given a blood transfusion during the surgery that followed,” he said.
The CUSA student issues action committee will be reviewing the policy before July 10, 2014—a year after it was passed.
