What matters to the Liberals
For weeks, Parliament has been engrossed in debate over Bill C-210 — arguably, the most inconsequential private member’s bill of recent time — which would change the lyrics to O Canada to make it more “gender inclusive” by way of three swapped words. The impact of this change, which is almost certain to happen in one way or another, will be met with either jubilation or despair, depending on the side of the aisle, then almost immediately forgotten as we collectively regress to never thinking about the actual words we mutter from the stands before hockey games. I can almost taste that future, and it is sweet.
Meanwhile, another private member’s bill — one that could have a real, tangible effect on the lives of Canadians now and in the future — was quietly voted down by the Liberals in the House of Commons this week (with the exception of six Liberal MPs, who voted against the party line), defeated by a vote of 171 against, 131 in favour.
Bill C- 223, sponsored by Conservative MP Ziad Aboultaif, called for the establishment of a Canadian Organ Donor Registry, which would l i nk together the patchwork of organ donation systems currently operating across Canada. It also called for the development of a national strategy to promote organ donation, including annual reports to chronicle the effectiveness of that strategy.
Aboultaif ’s motivation is twofold: his son, Tyler, suffers from a rare genetic disorder and has already undergone three liver transplants. “Having experienced the organ donation system firsthand,” Aboultaif told the House in April, “I became acutely aware of the need for a more co- ordinated effort in this area, both locally and nationally.”
His other motivation is Canada’s enduringly broken system, which has one of the worst organ donation rates in the developed world. According to a 2014 report by the International Registry in Organ Donation and Transplantation, Canada had about 16.5 deceased donors per one million population, trailing way behind world leader Spain at nearly 36, the U. S. at 27, France at 25 and the U. K. 20. And although trends do show that organ donation rates are up in Canada, the demand for organs also continues to outpace supply, and will only get worse as the baby boomer generation ages.
Despite that, it’s not particularly surprising Aboultaif ’ s bill didn’t make it through second reading; these sorts of private member’s bills tend not to generate that much attention ( unless they’re about abor- tion, or giving caucus the power to trigger a leadership review, or the national anthem), meaning it wasn’t all that politically risky for the Liberals to shoot it down, even though experts in the field have been calling for some sort of national legislation on organ donation for years.
Nevertheless, the Liberal position on the bill is that Canadian Blood Services already oversees organ donation as part of its mandate, so the creation of a national registry would essentially be redundant. And while that might very well be true, surely a parliamentary committee would be better poised to make that determination, especially after hearing from a variety of witnesses and experts in the field?
By shooting down this bill, the House has de facto voted in favour of the status quo: one by which access is still disproportionately based on postal code. Canadian Blood Services does operate a few different programs to try to facilitate donations beyond regional borders, including the Living Donor Paired Exchange, the National Organ Waitlist and the HSP or “highly sensitized patient” program to
CHANGING THREE WORDS IN THE ANTHEM IS APPARENTLY MORE IMPORTANT THAN IMPROVING OUR ORGAN DONATION SYSTEM.
find transplants for difficultto- match kidney patients, but each is still in its infancy, complicated by varying provincial regulations, and none offers a comprehensive solution to the regional problems plaguing organ donation. Indeed, the fact still remains that if you live in Ontario or British Columbia, you’re probably going to be waiting a whole lot longer for a transplant than if you live in Saskatchewan.
It is particularly unfortunate that right after the Liberal caucus banded together to vehemently defend a bill about a song that will have zero tangible impact on the lives of everyday Canadians, they linked arms and quietly dismissed a proposal to overhaul the way our health-care system handles, promotes and studies organ donation. Most every other developed nation in the world has some sort of federal legislation that deals with organ transplantation; perhaps when the Liberals have finished singing the new anthem, they can explain why Canada should be the exception.