I'll perhaps begin. I made that comment a few minutes ago.
I think it's a very important question. Certainly when Canadian Blood Services began its work in 1998, we initially made extensive outreach to the patient communities, because they were really the ones who bore the brunt of the consequences of the so-called tainted blood era in Canada. I think we have understood for many years that with every decision we make with respect to blood safety, the ultimate bearers of risk are those who receive blood. Donors are not obligated to be donors, but recipients are involuntary in their receipt of blood. If you have a car accident or cancer, and your physician prescribes blood, you don't really have a whole lot of choice, typically, in getting it. We have always recognized that every decision we make has to bear in mind the recipient as the ultimate bearer of that risk.
That said, with respect to the MSM policy, we have worked enormously hard with patient advocacy and patient stakeholder groups, as we have with stakeholders on the other side, the LGBT community. For many years the patient groups said, “We're not interested in a change to the policy. It suits us just fine. We don't care that it's broad and discriminatory.” But we were able to bring them along and have them recognize that there's a balance here. There a fairness issue. You can still protect safety at the same time.
That is why we landed on a five-year policy as step one. It is why, with greater trust and confidence, we moved to the one-year period. As Dr. Devine said, the patient groups will be front and centre in helping understand and inform the research agenda. It's essential that we keep onside that community along with the individuals who feel discriminated and left out. We really have to work with stakeholders on all sides of the equation here, but the patients are the ones who bear the risk.