THE scandal came into the open in the courtroom. The Canadian Red Cross acknowledged in the court that it had negligently dispensed infected blood in the 1980s. As a result, more than 20,000 people were infected with hepatitis C virus and another 1,000 with HIV.

The revelation followed a complaint by three unidentified victims of the negligence. Two of the plaintiffs died before the end of the trial. The third one was dying.

The three received the