Current Status, New Brunswick
January 18, 2019
New Brunswick has elected a new PC minority government. There is broad public support in New Brunswick to end the export of blood plasma out of the province and we are hopeful Minister Flemming and his colleagues will reverse the current position on paid plasma.
BREAKING:
September 5, 2017
Benoit Bourque is moving into a high-profile position as minister of Health.
BREAKING:
January 16, 2017
Maclean’s publishes an expose on “Policy laundering” behind blood brokers In Canada. Read the Maclean’s article.
Update December 21, 2016 – BREAKING –
Canadian Blood Services Says Paid Plasma Clinics Are Harming Voluntary Donations
CEO of CBS speaks out against private-paid plasma clinics. Confirms that they harm the voluntary donor base in Saskatchewan where the private clinic set-up.
PLEASE READ CBC’s national news story here.
December 2016
ALERT: Clinic is built in Moncton will open February of 2017 close to Moncton University.
Minister Boudreau has admitted that Canadian Blood Services has asked the Health Ministers to “pause” on allowing private for profit plasma collection clinics, but has decided to allow the clinics into New Brunswick in spite of this. The reason – to create 15 jobs. Despite the evidence that for-profit systems do in fact impact voluntary systems and these reports have been provided to his office several times, Minister Boudreau says he has “seen no evidence” to compel him to protect the public blood system. Canadian Blood Services has been advising Minister Boudreau not to allow the clinics into New Brunswick since June of 2016. The European Blood Alliance, the World Health Organization, The International Federation of the Red Cross and The Krever Inquiry – which are all baked by scientific evidence and real data all oppose private for-profit systems.
November 13, 2016.
Health Minister Victor Boudreau is continuing to move ahead with allowing private blood brokers into his province. This is quite serious considering Canadian Blood Services has to have 450 new donors in New Brunswick every month due to new restrictions on women donating – please see CBC article here. That means that Minister Boudreau is approving a competitor to CBS – one that will not aid any patients in New Brunswick.
Photo by Stephen MacGillivray Photography & Video
We delivered the SumOfUs petition to Minister Boudreau on October 27th, 2016. Minister Boudreau graciously accepted the petition and said he would take it under consideration. BloodWatch.org was joined by community and organization leaders from across the province. Minister Boudreau has absolutely no public support for his decision.
**All of the blood plasma collected by private blood brokers would be for sale on the international market.
We have launched our national sign campaign and have erected billboards in Moncton, NB where the clinic is being built. More to come!
*Please note that Canadian Blood Services does not pay donors in the US.
Canadian Blood Services has confirmed that they will not purchase plasma product from Canadian Plasma Resources or their affiliates.
CPR has applied for a license to open a private paid-plasma clinic in Moncton. Documents show that Health Minister Boudreau has had meetings with CPR. Please click on this PDF, NB Helping CPR, to read the exchange between the private blood broker, the Health Minister’s office and colleagues. Minister Boudreau supports private for-profit plasma in New Brunswick. Organizations representing nurses, NB Health Coalition, labour organizations and other parties have voiced opposition.
Minister Boudreau was kind enough to meet with BloodWatch.org in late June of this year. We are hopeful he will reconsider his position.
The PC Caucus allowed BloodWatch.org to make our presentation to them. We had a meaningful discussion on the topic and we were able to clear up some misconceptions about private paid plasma. David Coon, Leader of the Green Party, and Dominic Cardy, Leader of the NDP, also met with BloodWatch.org and voiced their opposition to the clinics publicly. We are grateful to everyone in New Brunswick we were able to meet and spend time with. It was clear to us that the people of New Brunswick do not support private for-profit paid plasma clinics.
Come on New Brunswick! Join Ontario and Quebec! Safeguard the integrity of our public blood system!
BloodWatch.org will be back to New Brunswick in October to join the fight to protect our blood system.
* Veuillez noter que la Société canadienne du sang ne paie pas les donneurs aux États-Unis.
La Société Canadienne du Sang a confirmé qu’elle n’achètera aucun des produits de plasma en provenance de Canadian Plasma Resources ou d’une de ses sociétés affiliées.
CPR a déposé une demande de licence pour ouvrir à Moncton une clinique privée de prélèvement de plasma à titre lucratif. Selon plusieurs sources, Victor Boudreau, ministre de la Santé, a tenu des rencontres avec certains responsables de CPR. Vous pouvez ouvrir le fichier pdf suivant : « NB Helping CPR », pour en apprendre davantage sur les échanges entre le courtier en sang rémunéré, le bureau du ministre de la Santé, ainsi que ses collègues. Le ministre Boudreau est favorable à la question du plasma rémunéré en ce qui touche au Nouveau-Brunswick. Nombre d’organismes représentant les infirmières, la Coalition de la santé du Nouveau-Brunswick, des syndicats et autres ont exprimé leur opposition. Le ministre Boudreau a eu l’amabilité de rencontrer BloodWatch.org à la fin juin de cette année. Nous avons bon espoir qu’il révisera sa position. Le caucus du PC a aussi autorisé BloodWatch.org à présenter notre position à ce groupe. Nous avons eu une discussion constructive sur le sujet et avons pu éclaircir certaines idées fausses sur le plasma privé à titre lucratif. David Coon, chef du Parti Vert, et Dominic Cardy, chef du NPD, ont également rencontré BloodWatch.org et exprimé publiquement leur opposition à ce type de cliniques. Nous remercions tous ceux, au Nouveau-Brunswick, que nous avons pu rencontrer et qui nous ont accordé du temps. Il est devenu évident pour nous que les gens du Nouveau-Brunswick ne sont pas en faveur de cliniques privées de plasma à titre lucratif.
Allons Nouveau-Brunswick ! Joignez-vous à l’Ontario et au Québec ! Et préservez l’intégrité de notre système public de dons du sang !
BloodWatch.org sera de retour au Nouveau-Brunswick en Octobre pour participer à la lutte afin de protéger notre système de dons sanguins.
News and Media, New Brunswick
Open Letter to the Honourable Commissioner Judge Horace Krever (retired)
March 5th, 2021 | Thursday, November 23, 2017 Justice Krever, On behalf of all of our employees at Canadian Blood Services, as well as the many donors, volunteers and countless individuals whose lives have been touched by Canada’s national blood system, it’s my privilege to offer you our collective thanks. Your remarkable contribution to health care in this […]
National Post: Counterpoint: Protect our domestic supply by shutting down the paid-plasma industry
May 21st, 2020 | May 11, 2020 10:03 AM EDT It is indefensible to use the tragedy of the pandemic, when thousands of Canadian lives are being lost, to peddle a private plasma collection model in Canada that has already been exposed as a sham. In a recent op-ed, Kate Vander Meer and Peter Jaworski argued that experimental COVID-19 […]
CTV News: PM Trudeau urges Canadians to donate blood during COVID-19 pandemic
March 21st, 2020 | Published Thursday, March 19, 2020 1:36PM EDT TORONTO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is encouraging Canadians to keep donating blood during the widening COVID-19 pandemic. During an update he provided outside of his home in Ottawa on Thursday, Trudeau said donating blood is one way people can help others in need. “Even if you don’t […]
Policy Options: Food protection agency’s approach to chronic wasting disease is immoral
February 5th, 2020 | Paul Sockett, Kat Lanteigne, Neil Cashman October 25, 2019 Agency responsible for protecting Canada’s food supply must stop releasing untested meat for human consumption from CWD-affected facilities. When people are exposed to meat that could be contaminated with chronic wasting disease (CWD), there’s a risk for the development of human cases of CWD. This meat […]
CBC News: Canadian Blood Services to open plasma donation sites to secure supply for patients
August 8th, 2019 | Posted: Aug 07, 2019 3 new centres will be a 1st in Canada for standalone plasma collection of this size and scale Canadian Blood Services will open plasma donation centres in three provinces to help meet the needs of Canadian patients. Plasma is a clear component of blood processed to manufacture therapies such as immune […]
CBC News: Health Canada approves increased plasma donations at private clinic
July 26th, 2019 | Canadian Plasma Resources can pay donors to provide plasma twice per week, Posted: Jul 25, 2019 Health Canada has approved more frequent paid plasma donations. The federal department approved a request by the private company Canadian Plasma Resources to increase the number of times a person can donate from once every six days to twice […]
NDP introduce bill to ban paid blood donations
May 9th, 2019 | For immediate release: May 8, 2019 NDP introduce bill to ban paid blood donations Today, NDP Health Critic Vicki Mowat introduced Bill No. 617 — The Voluntary Blood Donation Act in an effort to strengthen the province’s volunteer blood donor system and limit safety risks associated with paying for blood donations. “By making it clear […]
IPolitics: For-profit plasma collection won’t ensure national self-sufficiency: CBS
March 25th, 2019 | By Marco Vigliotti. Published on Mar 21, 2019 3:46pm Establishing more for-profit plasma collection facilities will not offer long-term assurances that supply will keep pace with the needs of Canadians, or that the plasma collected will stay in the country. That’s the message Canadian Blood Services (CBS) CEO Dr. Graham Sher took to the Senate […]
Why Thousands of Low-Income Americans ‘Donate’ Plasma
February 20th, 2019 | Watch the ABC News video here.
Leader Post: Paid plasma clinic bleeding Sask. dry, says critic as NDP calls for ban
January 23rd, 2019 | January 23, 2019 The provincial NDP is calling for a ban on paid plasma collection, amidst warnings that a private clinic is exploiting Saskatchewan people and shipping their blood products out of the country. Opposition Leader Ryan Meili used a press conference Wednesday to blast the Canadian Plasma Resources clinic, which has operated in Saskatoon […]
The Atlantic: How Blood-Plasma Companies Target the Poorest Americans
January 18th, 2019 | March 15, 2018 The industry’s business model depends on there being plenty of people who need cash quickly. Medicaid, housing subsidies, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—these are some of the things that make up the backbone of the U.S.’s social safety net. And the federal government, guided by President Trump’s proposed budget for 2019, is […]
Work Day Minnesota: Plasma Centers Profit off of the Challenges Facing the Working Poor
January 18th, 2019 | June 26, 2018 MAPLE GROVE Claire (whose name has been changed for anonymity) has been donating plasma twice a week for three years. “My husband and I lost our cleaning-service business three years ago,” the fifty-six-year-old said outside of her local BioLife plasma collection center. “The money doesn’t cover the whole month, but we need […]
The Guardian: My career as an international blood smuggler
January 18th, 2019 | For years, Kathleen McLaughlin smuggled American plasma every time she entered China, home to the world’s largest and deadliest blood debacle. She had no other choice. Learn more.
The University Star: Plasma donation centers exploit college students and the poor
January 18th, 2019 | College students frequently struggle to make ends meet and often live paycheck to paycheck. Some use creative ways to make extra money. Plasma donation centers are well aware of this and prey on students and other impoverished individuals to make a profit. Plasma is the clear liquid portion of blood that remains once red cells, […]
Salon: Medical companies are profiting from harvesting poor peoples’ blood
January 18th, 2019 | December 14, 2017 Donors hope to get $30 a pop for their plasma, but sometimes they aren’t even paid what they’re promised Here’s another example of wealthy corporations sucking poor people dry—literally. While many good samaritans donate blood or bone marrow out of good will, others sell their bodily fluids on a biweekly basis just […]
Maclean’s: A bloody mess: The story behind paid plasma in Canada
September 25th, 2018 | November 22, 2017 Internal documents show Health Canada working hand-in-glove with a private company to push a donation model the Krever inquiry warned against. Has it failed in its role as regulator? In February 2016, Canadian Plasma Resources (CPR) opened its first paid plasma collection centre in Saskatoon with a splashy media event attended by […]