Despite being banned in Ontario and Quebec, a for-profit company has set up shop to pay people for their plasma donations in Saskatchewan. And the same company is planning on starting a business in B.C.

Canadian Plasma Resources abandoned a planned Ontario expansion after the provincial government banned compensation for giving blood and plasma. 

The Canadian Health Professionals Secretariat and the BC Health Coalition are both calling on provincial governments to prohibit payment for donations of human tissue, including blood and plasma. In B.C., Minister of Health Terry Lake has said he is open to pay-for-plasma operations. 

In the 1980s, tainted blood infected 30,000 Canadians with HIV and Hepatitis C. The Krever inquiry into the scandal found that in order to prevent another tragedy, Canada must not allow payment for blood and plasma donations. This clinic is opening the door for another disaster along the lines of the tainted blood scandal.

"By making blood products into a business, these clinics are driven by profit," says Sherry Ogasawara, Vice President of Health Services for the BCGEU. "Blood products needed by Canadians may be sold abroad to make money, or the clinics may exploit our most vulnerable citizens by providing a means to make money that could endanger their health. Clinics have already been located near addictions treatment centres."

Add your voice to the growing group asking Terry Lake to ban for-profit plasma sales in B.C.!

Take action on the BC Health Coalition website by clicking here.

Click here to see the declaration by the Canadian Health Professionals Secretariat.