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OTTAWA, November 25, 2002 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canadian conservative icon Ted Byfield, a regular columnist with the Edmonton Sun, has revealed that the media in Canada has covered up portions of a report on the tainted blood scandal which has resulted in at least 24,000 people being infected with HIV, and 1,148 known to have contracted AIDS.  The devastating toll on human life resulting from the scandal, Byfield reveals, was due to acceptance of blood donated by sexually active homosexuals.  Based on the report by Mr. Justice Horace Krever issued five years ago, police laid 32 charges last week.  However, the media coverage of the report since its release has failed to identify the reasons for the tragedy.

Byfield reveals:  *While evidence mounted that taking blood donations from gay men was extremely dangerous, the Red Cross ignored the warnings because it did not want to be accused of discrimination under the human rights code.  *The Red Cross’s own lawyer advised that it had nothing to fear from the code, but it did have “the moral and legal obligation to protect the blood recipient above all.” The Red Cross ignored his advice.  *Some Red Cross doctors earmarked blood from gay men anyway so that it could be destroyed. One said he dare not tell head office because he would have been ordered to stop.  *A recommendation that male donors be asked whether they had had sex with another male was rejected on grounds of intolerance. A recommendation that donors be asked if they had AIDS was also rejected. They could only ask: “Are you well?”

Byfield concludes his column by stating “What the situation evidences is Canada’s deep commitment to “tolerance” and ‘human rights’ – so deep that it borders on criminal lunacy.”  See the full Byfield column at:  https://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/byfield.html (available on line for one week)