A reception is being held on Parliament Hill Monday to seek the support of politicians to have Ottawa outlaw private blood clinics in Canada. The organizer is a group that advocates on behalf of tainted blood survivors and has launched bloodwatch.org.
Members of “Blood Watch” are protesting Health Canada’s decision to license a private, for-profit, blood plasma clinic in Saskatchewan.
They are asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step in immediately and shut down the private blood brokers in Saskatoon and ban the practice across the country.
READ MORE: Controversial plasma collection clinic now open in Saskatoon
“The decision by Health Canada to allow Canadian Plasma Resources to open a private, for-profit blood plasma clinic in Saskatoon is wrong,” group co-founder Kat Lanteigne said in a release.
Lanteigne added that the recently opened clinic is in clear violation of the recommendations of the Horace Krever commission on tainted blood which explicitly concluded that blood is a public resource and donors should not be financially compensated.
The group says the private pharmaceutical company, Exapharma, was barred from opening in Ontario in 2014.
Members plan on lobbying all day with the reception for Senators and MPs expected to start at 7:30 p.m. in Room 601 at the Parliamentary Restaurant.
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