My name is Nigel Flear and I'm presenting on behalf of Egale Canada as the president. Thank you for the opportunity to meet with the committee today.
For those of you who don't know, Egale Canada is Canada's only national organization that advances equality and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans people and their families across the country. Egale Canada has presented numerous submissions on issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans Canadians before Senate committees and House of Commons committees, and it has held intervenor status for cases heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.
As you know, I am here to discuss the recent Health Canada regulation on organ donation, which is outlined and published in the Canada Gazette Part II. It came into effect in December 2007. Egale was not informed of this regulation until earlier this year, when we were notified by the media.
The regulation lists exclusionary criteria for donating organs, one of which is that you are excluded if you are a man who has had sex with another man--MSM--in the preceding five years. They can become donors only if the transplant surgeon signs a form stating they authorize the use of an organ that would normally be excluded. This clearly discriminates against gay men, bisexual men, and other men who have had sex with men, and it targets a specific group in society on the basis of sexual orientation, with no consideration for behaviour.
In his presentation to this committee on Tuesday, March 4, Dr. Gary Levy, the director of the multi-organ transplant program, university health network, University of Toronto, stated:
This regulation, as written, will not improve organ safety over current practice...the most troublesome exclusionary criterion, the singling out of men who have had sex with men...I personally believe is totally discriminatory.
Egale Canada recommends that Health Canada target high-risk behaviour rather than high-risk groups. Unprotected sex with unknown partners, homosexual or heterosexual, regardless of gender, puts a person at a higher risk of infection. In other countries--Spain, Italy, and Portugal, for example--the donation policy is being refined, measuring against risk behaviour rather than against sexual orientation. Medical experts have already indicated that a new regulation is unenforceable, could worsen existing transplant shortages, and the risk is not in being gay, but in risky sexual behaviour.
On behalf of Egale Canada, I urge you to amend this regulation and make it consistent with the scientific data, rather than treating gay sexual orientation as a risk category.
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this important discussion.