Justice committee  The recommendation is that you don't create new laws, that you would only prosecute very malicious and intentional HIV transmission and that you would use laws of general application. The law doesn't appear to be colour-blind, right? It tends to fall more heavily on certain populations, and there certainly seems to be a trend of a lot of prosecutions against black men, due to really racist assumptions.

Justice committee  I honestly don't know what the numbers are on that. I would say, however, that because so many of the prosecutions are directed at highly marginalized people, it's possible that sex workers were some of those people, but it hasn't been explicitly stated. There is a fear among sex workers that if they're known to be HIV-positive they could be criminalized and surveilled by public health.

Justice committee  No problem.

Justice committee  I'll note that the Attorney General's directives will only apply to the three territories, so they are of limited effect. I trust that you are working with your provincial counterparts to ensure these changes are adopted in each province. Our recommendations are as follows. Do not prosecute the transmission of HIV unless it is in one of the rare cases in which HIV transmission was deliberate and malicious, in which case use laws that have general application.

Justice committee  Good morning. Thank you for inviting me to speak to the committee today. My name is Kerry Porth and I am the sex work policy researcher at Pivot Legal Society. Pivot is an organization located in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver that works with communities affected by poverty and social exclusion to develop solutions to complex human rights issues.

Justice committee  Thank you.