Momentum for #nopaidplasma

Last week our Executive Director Sandra Azocar was in Winnipeg to present to the Board of Directors of Canadian Blood Services. She urged for action to support our voluntary blood and plasma collection while saying no to paid plasma.

You can read the text of Sandra's submission here.

We were pleased to see a change in tone with Canadian Blood Services in a CBC story today where CBS CEO Dr. Graham Sher says "Canadian Plasma Resources is a business looking to make a profit and Canadian Blood Services has no plans to buy what the company is selling."

With no Canadian market for their product there is no reason to support for-profit collection clinics like Canadian Plasma Resources (CPR). Their existence creates a parallel paid collection system which adds unnecessary competition for donors in Canada. 

Canadian Blood Services is right to raise concerns about CPR and we are continuing to call on our provincial government to follow Ontario and Quebec's footsteps. A legislative ban on paid blood and plasma clinics in Alberta would show leadership in western Canada, and support much needed improvement in our voluntary collection system.

If you support our work on this issue you can download our petition and get your friends, family, and co-workers to sign. Even if you can't fill the full sheet every signature counts. Send it back to us by the end of October and we will work to have the petition introduced in the Alberta legislature.