Living Donor Recognition Medal Act

This bill creates a new honour called the Living Donor Recognition Medal, to be awarded by the Governor General to people who have donated an organ (which is defined broadly to include blood and bone marrow) while they were alive, provided they did not profit from the donation. Each person can only receive the medal once, and recipients will be entitled to use the letters "L.D.M." after their name to signify the honour.

The bill sets out a basic framework rather than all the details. Cabinet (the Governor in Council) will decide what the medal actually looks like, and can appoint a minister responsible for administering the program. Cabinet is also given the power to make regulations setting out who is eligible for the medal, and which organizations can help assess eligibility or take part in presenting the medal.

Wherever possible, the medal is meant to be given out at a public ceremony, presented by a representative of the Crown, a territorial commissioner, a senator, an MP, or a representative of an approved organization. The Governor General's office decides whether a given ceremony counts as public and who presents the medal. Finally, the bill clarifies that none of this limits the Governor General's usual authority over honours and medals more generally.

This bill creates the Living Donor Recognition Medal and gives the Governor in Council and the Governor General authority to define its design, eligibility rules, and award process.

• New role — the Governor in Council (Cabinet) may designate any member of the King's Privy Council as the Minister responsible for administering this Act.
• Award power — the Governor General may award the Medal to a person who has donated an organ without profiting from it, provided they meet eligibility criteria set out in regulations; each person may receive it only once.
• Regulation-making left to Cabinet — the eligibility criteria for the Medal, and the entities or classes of entities responsible for assessing eligibility, are not defined in the Act itself but are left to future regulations made by the Governor in Council.
• Presentation discretion — a public servant designated by the Office of the Governor General's Secretary decides whether a presentation ceremony is public and who presents the Medal, from a list that includes a Crown representative, territorial commissioner, Senator, MP, or a prescribed entity's representative.
• Post-nominal entitlement — recipients are entitled to use the letters "L.D.M." after their name.
• Prerogative preserved — nothing in the Act limits the Governor General's existing prerogative powers regarding honours, meaning the Crown's traditional authority over the Medal continues alongside the Act's provisions.
• Oversight — the Act contains no reporting requirement, appeal mechanism, or sunset clause; all design and eligibility decisions rest with the Governor in Council through regulations not specified in the bill.