SSMU Did Right By Us For Once...

The Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) has done right by us for once. Instead of shying away from the issue, or deferring it on account of its contentiousness, they have chosen to take a stand for the rights of a minority.

Effective immediately, the Shatner Ballroom at McGill University will no longer be host to Hema-Quebec's blood drives until the policy, deemed discriminatory towards gay men, is changed. This, in turn, means that Health Canada must give Hema-Quebec permission to change its policies.

In January, Hema-Quebec shut down a blood drive because they misinterpreted a protest to mean that donors should lie about their sexual activity. The risk of infecting the blood supply meant shutting down the blood drive until such time as it could be determined that only donors with honest intentions could be accepted. That time never came, and the blood drive was cancelled altogether. The radical group which initiated the protest, calling themselves the Second Cumming, fired back that the posters were not ambiguous and that any "misrepresentation" that a protester might attempt would be so obvious that screeners would easily be able to turn them away. For example, the poster read that protesters should "act faggy, do drag...and cause a commotion."

The incident caused an uproar in the McGill community as many members of the student body give blood each time Hema-Quebec is there. Many of those same students also see donating blood as a "privilege", the same stance taken by the Hema-Quebec director, Pierre Julien. But it is also clear from the students that many do not agree with Hema-Quebec's discriminatory policy. Queer McGill sets up a table at the doors to Shatner Ballroom to ask that students not give blood in light of the policy which asks male donors, "have you had sexual contact with another man since 1977?" However, the Second Cumming's actions opened the door to a highly controversial issue which requires the attention of a major student group like the SSMU.

The SSMU council voted 20 to 6 in favour of banning Hema-Quebec from McGill until the policies change, but that vote was not easily come by. Many of the councillors felt that they had been sandbagged by the tabled motion, with no time to discuss with their respective communities. And while I don't generally agree with sandbagging committees (with the power to decide on such issues as this) because it prevents proper debate and discussion, this has been a fresh topic for nearly a year now. The SSMU has had plenty of time to debate and decide, and then to take a stance on the issue. Additionally, voting on the issue meant interpreting the constitution. According to the constitutions, endeavours undertaken by the SSMU must be done "with full respect for human dignity and without discrimination on the basis of irrelevant personal characteristics." Floh Herra-Vega, the SSMU's VP Clubs and Services, who tabled the motion, noted that Hema-Quebec's policy "singles out a single group of people, not a practice. That's why this motion is constitutional." She also noted that this is not simply a medical issue. "We shouldn't think of this as a blood drive; we should think of it like we would any other thing. We can't treat this differently because it's something that is crucial to life. I don't see how we can have blood drives and still respect ourselves as councillors."

During the January incident, the SSMU condemned the shutdown as "amateurish" and a "defamation of McGill students across Canada." They stood by us then, and they are doing so now. Thank you SSMU for doing what should have been done years ago. It's about time that someone stood up and said, enough is enough.