c Prime Minister who? NEWS © This week, Oliver Neenan asks, “Why does the media call Stephen Harper the ‘Prime Minister-desig- nate’ and not the ‘Prime Minister-elect?” “Prime Minister-designate” is an odd term used to describe the man or woman who has been elected Prime Minister, but has not yet officially been sworn- in to the office. Immediately after last week’s January 23rd election, Consetvative Party leader Stephen Harper became the PM-designate, a title the media will use to describe him until he is sworn in on February 6. So if he was elected, why is he called “designate” and not “elect,” as in President-elect or MP-elect? Well, it all has to do with constitutional formalities. Technically, the Prime Minister of Canada is not an elected official, but rather an appointed one. In the hours following a federal election, the Governor General of Canada calls the leader of the victorious political party and asks him or her to “form a gov- ernment.” Harper is thus called the Prime Minister- OPREW seditor@email.com EVENTS CALENDAR sPaRtAcUs BoOkS Grand Re-open- ing / Open House! Sunday, February 5, lpm—7pm at our new store: 319 West Hastings, 2nd floor Big Sisters Information Session Being Held in New Westminster Thursday, February 9, 7-8pm New Westminster Public Library 716 6th Avenue, New Westminster To register please call Big Sisters at 604.873.4525 ext. 300 or email ledamura@bigsisters.be.ca www.bigsisters.be.ca 5th Annual Co-Development Canada Film Festival: Imagining Possibilities February 10-12 at Langara College 100 W. 49th Avenue, Vancouver For details check out www.codev.org/filmfest or contact filmfest@codev.org Picket Action! Free the Cuban 5 Held in US Jails! Monday, February 13, 12pm—1pm US Consulate 1095 West Pender @ Thurlow, Vancouver Organized by: Free the Cuban 5 Committee—Vancouver Investigative Reporter, J.J. McCullough, OP Contributor designate because he has been “designated”’ to the office by Michaélle Jean, the Governor General. Got a question you need investigated? Email wart_mamu@yahoo.com Endorsed by: Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba (VCSC) For more information: www.vancubasolidarity.com/freethe- fivevan.html cuban5_van@yahoo.com 604.719.6947 Blood drive at McGill shut down after protest Demonstrators take on Héma-Québec's blood screening Sarah Colgrove, The McGill Daily (McGill University) 1G DONATE LIFE (unless you are a gay male) MONTREAL (CUP)—Héma-Québec shut down its on- campus blood drive at McGill this week after students lined up in drag and blasted “Tainted Love” to protest the collection agency’s policy that excludes men who have had sex with men (MSM) from donating blood. About 30 would-be donors, half of them demonstra- tors, had registered and were waiting to see a nurse when the blood drive was closed, about an hour after demonstra- tors lined up inside the building where the drive was taking place. Héma-Queébec director, Pierre Julien, said he had received a tip that people would appear and lie about their sexual history. Posters that appeared across campus on Tuesday invited students to “act faggy, do drag, and lie about [their] sexual history,” in solidarity with MSM. “We cannot accept people who are lying—we can’t take that risk,” said Julien before he closed the drive. He refused to comment further. 7 However, demonstrators said they were not encourag- ing ineligible people to lie and donate blood, but urging people who were eligible to invent unusual circumstances that might prevent them from donating. “People are going to lie...in order to expose the sexual prejudices underlying the exclusion policies,” explained Adrian Bondy, a third-year Linguistics student. “We're not trying to include anyone who couldn’t donate under the current restrictions.” Bondy said that the current policy is left over from early conceptions of AIDS that equated homosexuality and deviance with the virus. “This is part of a larger homophobic and sex-phobic AIDS response in Canada for the past 20 years,’ Bondy said. “This is overt discrimination that limits the blood supply.” Some demonstrators were planning to say that they were women who had had sex with a MSM, and to ask why they were eligible, while their partner would not be. Héma-Québec’s current policy permanently bans any man who has had sex with a man since 1977 from donat- ing blood, whereas a woman who has had sex with a MSM is excluded for only one year. “Why can an MSM who has always worn protection not give blood whereas a woman who has always had unprotected sex can?” asked Jamie Cudmore, a second-year International Development Studies student. Some other demonstrators targeted policies that pre- vent people who have spent more than three days in jail or have performed sexual acts in exchange for money from donating blood. “T’m going to ask explicit questions about what counts as having sex and give descriptions and examples,” said Josh Pavan, second-year Political Science and Women’s Studies student. “If that falls through, I'll tell them I was in prison for 24 hours and got raped, but I’m not sure if it was by a woman or a man.” In an impromptu meeting at the beginning of the demonstration, Héma-Queébec organizers said that they would not close down the drive as long as demonstrators did not lie during the screening process. However when student union president, Adam Conter, and VP communications and events, Roz Freeman, tried to explain that demonstrators would only lie to make a state- ment, not to become eligible, Julien threatened to block demonstrators from giving blood. The executives said that they convinced Julien not to shut out the demonstrators. But at 3:30 pm, he shut down the entire blood drive, saying it would open again in the morning. Freeman said the student union would be increasing its pressure on Héma-Québec to revisit its policy in the com- ing weeks, beginning with a meeting with the blood organi- zation’s chair. Last semester, the student council sent a let- ter requesting a reevaluation, but Héma-Québec has taken no action so far. ; Marcel Beaudere, who has volunteered for eight years with Héma-Québec, reiterated Héma-Queébec’s stance that MSM are the highest-risk group for HIV infection, and that excluding them from donating blood protects blood recipients. He added that nurses may mark a donation if they think that a recipient is lying, and that it might be thrown away. One Héma-Québec employee, who spoke under the condition of anonymity because employees are not allowed to speak to the press, speculated that the blood drive was closed to save money. “If those people give blood, their samples are- going to be questionable, and if we have to throw away a bag of blood, [that’s] between 300 and 400 dollars,” said the employee.