Montreal – Stanley Étienne, a 41-year-vintage bus driver, has donated blood 37 times in recent years, driven by a desire to support those suffering from sickle cell anemia, a disease disproportionately affecting the Black community. His commitment extends beyond personal donations; he now actively organizes blood drives and advocates for increased participation within the Black community in Quebec.
Étienne’s advocacy stems from a deeply personal experience – witnessing a friend’s health crisis related to sickle cell anemia. He learned that blood transfusions were crucial for her treatment and that compatible blood was most readily found among donors of the same ethnic background. Héma-Québec, the province’s blood agency, reports that over 200 sickle cell patients in Quebec depend on regular blood donations to survive, with a single patient requiring an average of 130 donations annually.
However, this call for donations is shadowed by a history of mistrust within the Black community, rooted in discriminatory practices of the past. In the 1980s, U.S. Health authorities incorrectly identified Haitians as a “high-risk group” for HIV/AIDS, alongside homosexuals, heroin users, and hemophiliacs – a categorization known as the “4Hs.” This led to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) barring people of Haitian origin from donating blood.
The stigma spread to Canada. By 1983, the Canadian Red Cross requested that recent Haitian immigrants voluntarily refrain from donating blood. While the high-risk classification for Haitians was dropped in the U.S. By the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in 1985, the FDA continued to exclude Haitian immigrants arriving after 1977 until 1990. In Canada, the voluntary self-exclusion policy was quietly lifted in 1988, without public announcement.
Étienne recounts the impact of these policies on his own family. “A lot of Haitians don’t want to give blood since of that,” he said, explaining that he had to persuade his own mother to overcome her distrust of the medical establishment. This historical context continues to influence attitudes towards blood donation within the community.
The Canadian Blood Services (CBS) likewise faced criticism for a screening question that limited donations from individuals who had lived in, were born in, or had sexual contact with a person from certain African countries after 1977, due to concerns about HIV testing reliability. This question was not removed until 2018, following improvements in testing technology.
Acknowledging the impact of systemic and anti-Black racism, CBS stated that while Black Canadians comprised 4.3% of the population in 2021, they represent less than 1% of Canada’s blood donors. Héma-Québec is actively working to address this disparity, aiming to increase Black Quebecer donors from the current 10,000 annually to 26,000.
Akelia Campbell, a sickle cell anemia patient, frequently shares her experiences to raise awareness. She described the significant pain and challenges associated with the disease, which manifested in early childhood. “In childhood, I was in and out of the hospital a lot,” she said. As an adult, she manages the condition but must carefully balance her life to avoid triggers that cause painful flare-ups.
Chantal Goupil, a Héma-Québec nurse, emphasized the severity of sickle cell anemia and the urgent need for blood donations from the Black community. “It’s exceptionally difficult for them,” she said. “we need more blood from the Black community.” Héma-Québec highlights the importance of genetic matching between donors and recipients, stating that “To treat those affected effectively, the donor and recipient must share the same genetic makeup. It’s the reason why Black donors are vital to the community.”
For Étienne, the act of donating is deeply meaningful. “It feels good,” he said. “I don’t know that person, but because of me, I give a chance to that person to survive.”
