End the Discriminatory Blood Ban panel

Watch Online:

We will be streaming the conversation live through the CESAR Facebook: www.facebook.ca/ryecesar/live

Please note that you can watch a live video without having a facebook account.

Speakers:

Christopher Karas

Christopher Karas (he/him) is the Principal Lawyer at Karas Legal Services Professional Corporation, and a licensed Paralegal of the Law Society of Upper Canada and mediator. He mainly focuses on provincial and federal Human Rights matters. Karas is the current litigant in the federal case of Christopher Karas v. Canadian Blood Services and Health Canada. He is challenging the MSM (men who have sex with other men) blood deferral policy at the Canadian Human Rights Commission to change Canada’s blood policy. He challenged the policy when he was barred from donating lifesaving blood at a local clinic. The federal legal challenge was accepted September 3rd 2016 and could result in significant policy changes. The Canadian Human Rights Commission deferred the matter to the federal Human Rights Tribunal on September 25th, 2019. Karas may be heard at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

Ky Rees

Ky Rees (they/them) is a member of Unifor 2002 (Air Canada). They are a white settler, mad (social) scientist, witch, and homesteader in Newfoundland and Labrador. They have been an activist for fifteen years, including with Canadian Blood Services for all three LGBTTQ & Patient stakeholder meetings during 2011-2012. When they’re not working, weeding or beekeeping, they’re plotting the revolution.

Dr. OmiSoore H. Dryden

OmiSoore H. Dryden (she/her) lives and works in K’jipuktuk/Halifax. The site of the oldest Black communities in Canada, current home of African Nova Scotians. OmiSoore is a Black queer femme whose scholarship focuses on the lives of Black people and addresses the health inequities we continue to fight against. Dr. OmiSoore H. Dryden is the James R Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies, Faculty of Medicine and Associate Professor, Community Health & Epidemiology at Dalhousie University. Dr. Dryden is an associate scientist with the Maritime SPOR SUPPORT Unite (MSSU) and a current member of the international Black Feminist Health Science Studies Collective based at Northeastern University. Dryden is an interdisciplinary scholar who examines the symbolics of blood and the “social life” of blood donation, while engaging with Black queer diasporic analytics, and health and medical humanities. Dr. Dryden is the Principal Investigator of #GotBlood2Give / #DuSangÀDonner a research project which seeks to identify the barriers African/Black gay, bisexual, and trans men encounter with donating blood and also analyzes how anti-black racism, colonialism, and sexual exceptionalism shapes the blood system in Canada.

Facilitated by Sébastien Lalonde

Sébastien Lalonde (he/him) is a franco-Ontarian queer graduate of York University where he obtained an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a Certificate in Public Administration & Law. He is passionate about social justice and has worked on campaigns & advocated around issues such as free education, public transit, food insecurity, sexual violence and queer issues. He began his work in student advocacy serving as President of Winters College at York University and subsequently served as Vice President Campaigns & Advocacy for the York Federation of Students. He is currently the Chairperson for the Francophone and Bilingual Caucus at the Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario.

Take Action:

Sign the Unifor petition here: www.unifor.org/endtheban