Federal

The CBC reports that the company tried to open clinics in Toronto in 2014, and when Ontario legally banned paying donors, it headed to Saskatchewan, where it was welcomed. It has hired lobbyists to try to persuade other provinces to let it in. Plasma, the company explains, “is the straw-coloured liquid portion of blood.” Hey, […]

Canadian Plasma Resources, having failed miserably with its plan to pay plasma donors in Toronto, has now set up shop in Saskatoon. Why Saskatchewan – or any other province, for that matter – would align itself with a company that has a controversial history and business plan is odd, especially given Canada’s painful history with […]

Ontario plans to join Quebec in banning payments to people for their blood and blood plasma after a paid-plasma clinic in Toronto opened its doors to donors. The governing Liberals re-introduced legislation Wednesday that also incorporates recommended changes to pharmacy oversight after more than 1,200 cancer patients in Ontario and New Brunswick received diluted chemotherapy […]

Ontario is taking aim once again at two pay-for-plasma clinics in Toronto, dusting off legislation to ban paid donations two weeks after Health Ministry inspectors swooped in to seize records at the facilities. The bill from Health Minister Eric Hoskins is being combined with another proposed law aimed at preventing another chemotherapy “under-dosing” scandal by […]

So why is the Ontario government so insistent on not allowing payments to people for their blood and blood plasma? We’re already using imported products that have been bought and paid for, so why not allow Ontarians to reap the benefit instead of American citizens? Two reasons, and they’re both good. One is that trust […]

Two decades ago, 30,000 Canadians, recipients of blood and plasma products, were infected with HIV and hepatitis C. Some of the tainted blood was purchased from “blood brokers” whose supplies came from Arkansas prisons, L.A.’s “skid row” and Russian funeral homes. Confronted with a blood shortage and weighing the odds, Health Canada and the Canadian […]

Permitting paid plasma collection by the private sector raises difficult questions. Will it be safe? Will a plasma-for-profit system prompt fewer volunteers to donate blood? Can parallel donor systems co-exist? And what are the risks of privatizing blood collection? There’s an ethical dimension, too. Because the clinics are located in inner-city neighbourhoods, where people welcome […]

The Ontario government says it will introduce legislation that prohibits payments for blood or plasma donations in the province. The issue of paying donors has been contentious ever since clinics began popping up last year — two in Toronto and one in Hamilton. The federal government has said it will respect any provincial and territorial […]

Ontario is raising concerns about new clinics that would pay people to give blood plasma, saying Health Canada should delay any approvals until it has consulted the provinces and other groups. The prospect of three paid-donor blood plasma clinics being set up in the province is a cause for concern, Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews […]

A private company that had been trying to open three plasma clinics in Ontario is giving up and leaving the province, saying the Liberal government’s determination to ban compensation for plasma donors has forced it to look elsewhere for a home. The chief executive officer of Canadian Plasma Resources says his company is in talks […]

It may ultimately be up to the province whether or not a Canadian company gets the go-ahead to open paid-plasma donor clinics in Toronto. The company, Canadian Plasma Resources, must overcome two regulatory hurdles before it can pay donors $20 for their plasma, a protein-rich liquid found in blood and manufactured into life-saving treatments. Health […]

Survivors of the tainted blood crisis of the 1980s are sounding the alarm about a proposal by Canadian Plasma Resources (CPR) to pay people for donations of blood plasma, saying it flies in the face of lessons learned 25 years ago when blood was collected from high-risk populations. CPR, which has two clinics in downtown […]

Ontario plans to join Quebec in banning payments to people for their blood and blood plasma after a paid-plasma clinic in Toronto opened to donors. The governing Liberals re-introduced legislation on Wednesday that also incorporates recommended changes to pharmacy oversight in response to cases in which more than 1,200 cancer patients in Ontario and New […]

Health Canada should hold off on approving blood clinics that pay people for their plasma, Ontario’s health minister says. Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews asked her federal counterpart on Monday to hold off approving two clinics in Toronto and one in Hamilton planned by Canadian Plasma Resources. “As health regulators and care providers, I strongly […]

It was an ‘invitation only’ meeting at a downtown Toronto hotel. The media were banished to the hallway. Inside, a handpicked group of people gathered, with no one sure who else was around the table. There was no official agenda, no list of the names of the presenters. The only record of the proceedings was […]

On behalf of Ontario’s registered nurses (RNs), nurse practitioners (NPs) and nursing students (BScN), the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) extends its warmest congratulations on your election as Ontario’s premier. As you know, RNAO is the professional body representing RNs, NPs and BScN students across the province. Premier, we would also like to take […]