Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of Bill C-234, the living donor recognition medal act, and I am so honoured to do so at its third reading here in the chamber before it moves to the Senate and, hopefully, soon becomes law in this land. It is with great honour that I stand here today to speak to an issue that continues to impact Canadians from coast to coast to coast. Across boundaries, cities, provinces and parties, Canadians know the importance of helping each other.
I want to begin by acknowledging the member for Edmonton Manning. This bill is not a political exercise for my colleague; it is personal. It is the legislative expression of a father's love, a family's faith and many years of walking hospital hallways and learning first-hand what it means to wait for the call that may or may not come. I thank my colleague for his advocacy of this bill.
In 2003, the member for Edmonton Manning entered an operating room and gave part of his own liver so that his son could live. It is not a small thing. It is an act of extraordinary courage, of a father who looked at the risk of his own life and decided without hesitation that his son's life would come first. Thanks to that gift, in part, and subsequent transplants, his son is alive today. That is what living donation looks like. That is who this medal would be for.
I want to speak today not only in support of the bill in abstract but also on behalf of a constituent in my riding whose story reminds me every day why legislation like this matters. My constituent's name is Jason. Jason is 54 years old and lives in Georgetown with his loving wife Angela and their three rambunctious dogs. He is a pipe welder. He loves hockey and pickleball, but he has not been able to play for a while.
Despite no known health issues and living a healthy lifestyle, Jason was first diagnosed with a fatty liver about 10 years ago. It progressively worsened year after year. When he developed cirrhosis of the liver some four years ago, it was verified from blood work that he had PSC, primary sclerosing cholangitis. PSC is an infection that attacks the inner and outer liver bile ducts, causing a blockage of bile to form inside the liver. With each occurrence, this weakens the liver, leading to severe liver damage.
When Jason told me about his PSC, I was struck by a rare coincidence, as my good friend and colleague, and long-time lawyer in my hometown of Milton, Ontario, Lorne Greenwood, also suffered from this rare condition. Lorne was fortunate to receive a full liver transplant from a deceased donor over 20 years ago. Lorne is a proud advocate of organ donation, since the gift of his donor saved his life and kept him here and healthy to raise his two daughters, as well as continue to serve his community through his professional work and volunteerism. In short, the donor gave not only to Lorne but also to our entire community. I told Lorne about my constituent Jason. It brought Lorne back to that time of uncertainty that, thanks to his donor, became a time of indescribable gratitude.
Just last October, Jason was placed on the liver transplant list. He is searching for a living donor who can give him the gift of time, of more mornings, of more seasons and of more years with the people he loves. I have spoken with Jason. I have sat with his family. Through them, I have learned that the question of whether Canada should do more to honour living donors is not an abstract policy question. It is a moral one. This bill answers that question with a clear and resolute response.
Let us look at what the data tell us. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, as of December 31, 2024, there were 4,044 Canadians on transplant wait-lists. Of the 691 Canadians removed from the transplant wait-list in 2024, nearly one-third had died while waiting.
Just a few weeks ago, on April 7, we observed Green Shirt Day in honour of Logan Boulet, the Humboldt Bronco who tragically lost his life in that terrible bus crash in 2018, but his parents donated his organs so that six lives could live on. They did so because Logan told them that he was registering as an organ donor and that he was inspired by his coach and mentor, Ric Suggitt, who had died the previous year and was also an organ donor, saving six lives.
We are currently in the midst of National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week, which honours Canadians who have chosen to donate life-saving organs and tissue and recognizes transplant recipients embracing their second chance at life. By observing Organ Donation Awareness Month in April, communities nationwide come together to celebrate the generosity of donors and encourage more people to make the life-saving decision to register.
In Canada, almost 90% of Canadians say they support organ donation, but only 32% have actually registered the intent to donate. Living donation, where an individual can donate a kidney, part of a liver or part of a lung while they are still very much alive, has the potential to close the gap significantly. The ability of a healthy body to regenerate its liver, function fully with a single kidney or short a portion of a lung is nothing short of miraculous. However, to think that so few people seriously consider giving this life-giving gift is tragic. In the case of a liver donor, after they donate a portion of their liver, the remaining liver regenerates, grows back to nearly its original size and performs its usual functions.
There may be those of us who would contemplate becoming a living donor, recognizing that undertaking this act of altruism reduces the wait time for patients in need of a life-saving organ, like a kidney, partial liver or partial lung, but we may be apprehensive about the process, the financial burden through time off work or very practical things. For example, by agreeing to become a living organ donor, donors travel to and from a transplant hospital for a variety of tests and surgery, which may result in financial loss. However, some provinces offer a living organ donor expense reimbursement program, which reimburses some out-of-pocket expenses and makes it possible to be a living donor even when living far away from the recipient. The program is designed to remove financial barriers and increase the number of potential donors.
While Canada's provinces run our organ donation system, there is a role for federal government as well. From 2018 to 2024, Health Canada and its partners led and successfully completed the Organ Donation and Transplantation Collaborative, with implementation of the pan-Canadian governance body for organ donation and transplantation. This initiative continues to make improvements to system performance for better patient outcomes.
The member for Edmonton Manning said it plainly in his sponsor speech: Most of the people on wait-lists today could be saved by a living donor. That is a profound statement. It means that the answer is not only in our hospitals; it is in our communities, our neighbourhoods, our families and our co-workers. It is in the decision that an ordinary Canadian makes, after learning about living donation, to ask, “Could I be someone's second chance? Maybe I am someone's only chance.” That is exactly why recognition matters. It is why this medal matters.
Canada has a long and proud tradition of using national honours to signal to citizens what we value as a society. We give medals for bravery. We give medals for service. We give medals for artistic achievement and athletic excellence, but until now, we have had no formal recognition for someone who undergoes surgery voluntarily, at personal risk, with no expectation of compensation, to give another human being the organ they need to survive.
Bill C-234 would change that. The living donor recognition medal would be a national honour awarded to Canadians who donate an organ to a fellow Canadian while still living. If the bill passes, Canada would become only the second country in the world to formally include living donors in its national honours system. That is something to be proud of. That is a nation-building issue in the truest sense.
A medal tells a story. It changes a culture. It makes living donation visible in a way that has not yet been seen. It says to every Canadian, “This is something extraordinary people do. This is something you can do. You can be extraordinary through selflessly sharing a vital part of yourself with someone who needs it direly.” The bill generates conversation simply by existing.
I also want to commend the member for Edmonton Manning for the way he has pursued this work. He has done so with patience, with persistence and with a generosity of spirit that is characteristic of his approach to public life. He has noted on the record that he believes in working across party lines whenever possible and that when we work together, we get more done for Canadians. This bill is a testament to that belief. It has received support from multiple parties in this chamber, because the cause of saving lives does not belong to any one political tradition.
I think about my colleague across the aisle, who walked into that hospital in 2003 and gave a part of himself so his son could grow up. I think about the unnamed donors who followed, strangers who could not have known about the member's son but whose families made the decision in a time of grief to give part of their loved one so that others may go on. I think about the hundreds of living donors who make the same choice every single year in every province, town and riding, with no fanfare, no recognition and no medal, but we can help. A medal is a small gesture in one sense, but what it represents, the gratitude of a nation and the recognition of something rare and precious in the human spirit, is not small at all.
Jason tells me that once his health improves, after the donor and transplant that he prays for make him healthy again, he hopes to return to the hockey rink, to the pickleball court and to walking those dogs with his wife, and to get back to his work. The person who can make that happen for Jason is out there. That person could be watching this speech. That person could be the first recipient of the living donor medal that my colleague has conceptualized and now presents to this House. For Jason, and for every Canadian sitting by the phone tonight waiting for a call, every day that we delay is a day that matters.
I urge all members to vote in favour of this bill, which truly emanates the Canadian spirit of selflessness.