A Thornhill resident recently lost his case at the Ontario Superior Court arguing that the practice of barring men who have had sex with men from donating blood is discriminatory.
Kyle Freeman first made headlines when he anonymously emailed Canadian Blood Services, revealing that he had lied during its screening process and donated blood on multiple occasions because he disagreed with the policy.
Freeman filed his counterclaim in a response to a lawsuit launched by the non-profit organization that accused him of negligent misrepresentation. In it, he asserted that the policy infringed upon his rights to equality under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
At the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, judge Catherine Aitken ultimately ruled that the policy wasn’t discriminatory for a variety of reasons, including that it was designed with health and safety in mind, and was grounded in evidence. She also found that Freeman had, in fact, been negligent.
Ron Vezina, a spokesperson for Blood Services, said his agency didn’t have any plans to collect the $10,000 it was awarded in damages.
“It was never about money,” said Vezina. “When we first pursued Mr. Freeman, it was so that we could find out his identity, so that we could call back his units of blood and also defer him as a donor.”
Blood Services continues to support research and reassess its policies, but right now, the evidence doesn’t exist to support any changes to this one, he said.
Patricia LeFebour, the lawyer who represented Freeman, said she was unable to comment on the ruling at this time.
At a press conference following the judge’s ruling, Blood Services CEO Graham Sher said that the decision reaffirmed the appropriateness of his organization’s current policy.
He pointed out that men who have sex with men are only one of the groups that are not permitted to make donations because various factors put them at a higher risk for blood-borne diseases. Screening is done in the form of a questionnaire before people roll up their sleeves, but it doesn’t take the place of testing, which happens after donations have been collected.
“Our donor selection policies have always been about protecting the safety of blood recipients and the MSM [men who have sex with men] policy is no exception,” said Sher.
Efforts to contact Freeman were not returned by press time.
