Good morning.
My name is Khaled Salam and I'm the Executive Director of the AIDS Committee of Ottawa. ACO is a social justice organization that provides education, support, outreach and advocacy to people living with, affected by and at risk of HIV/AIDS in Ottawa. ACO has served the Ottawa community for almost 35 years.
Criminalization of HIV non-disclosure has stood as an impediment to public health and HIV/AIDS education and prevention. It has added even more fuel to stigma, misinformation and fear. HIV is a health and medical issue, not a legal or criminal issue. HIV should be addressed from a scientific and evidence-based lens, particularly when it comes to risk factors and methods of transmission, and not from a place of prejudice, judgment and HIV phobia.
People living with HIV need health and social supports instead of the threat of criminal accusations and imprisonment hanging over their heads. Criminalization of HIV non-disclosure undermines the work of organizations like ACO, and it fosters a climate of fear and recrimination. We understand that the topic of criminalization of HIV non-disclosure generates different views, opinions, thoughts, feelings and experiences. Having these conversations—even if they are difficult at times—is crucial in effectively addressing the impact of criminalization of HIV non-disclosure in our communities.
Disclosure of one’s HIV status is a complex social issue. Our communities and society as a whole don’t always allow for safe and supportive environments for voluntary disclosure of status. Often when people living with HIV disclose their status, they're shunned and ostracized, sometimes by those closest to them. People may fear rejection, violence or discrimination, or they may worry that their status might not be kept confidential by the person they're disclosing to.
There are many communities where the topic of sexuality and HIV is taboo. Racism, colonialism, homophobia, drug phobia, gender norms, economic conditions, and cultural and language barriers are all factors that can also affect a person’s ability to disclose their status.
In the overwhelming majority of cases, the very broad application of the criminal law to HIV exposure—which often includes draconian sentences—does far more harm than good. Rather than using criminal law to respond to cases of HIV exposure or transmission, our society as a whole should move towards reforming laws and policies that stand in the way of evidence-informed HIV prevention, support and treatment efforts. We need to collectively work towards promoting a social and legal environment that is supportive of and safe for voluntary disclosure.
Last year on World AIDS day, December 1, at our annual commemorative event on Parliament Hill, the federal Minister of Health, the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, on behalf of the Canadian government, officially endorsed the “U=U” strategy—undetectable equals untransmittable—and signed the consensus statement. Words cannot express our sentiments, nor can they truly convey our feelings surrounding that momentous occasion when we as an organization, a city, a country and most importantly the HIV community made history together. Our collective hearts were filled with pride and tears were trickling down our cheeks. At the same time, our hands were either up in the air or coming together in thunderous claps as Canada became the first country in the world to endorse U=U. This meant our government was proudly declaring that a person living with HIV on treatment with a suppressed viral load cannot sexually transmit the virus to another person. This is a shining example of government and community working together to eradicate HIV/AIDS stigma.
The same day as that endorsement, the federal government announced a new directive to help limit unjust prosecutions against people living with HIV in Canada. This new directive comes after years of advocacy by legal networks, many community partners and people living with HIV across Canada. At ACO, we see this as a welcome and positive step forward in the ongoing effort to end the criminalization of HIV. We recognize that it is more in line with the latest scientific evidence regarding HIV and its transmission.
Last year, the Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization—the CCRHC—released its community consensus statement. We immediately signed on to it, along with 160 other organizations across Canada.
This statement called upon the federal government to act on its stated concerns about the over-criminalization of HIV and the findings of a Justice Canada report released back in 2017.
As a local organization advocating for the HIV community in Ottawa, we were pleased that the government listened to our collective voice by issuing this new directive. It is an important step in the right direction. The fact that the new directive states that there should not be prosecution where the person living with HIV has maintained a suppressed viral load is a big step forward and in line with the government's aforementioned endorsement of undetectable equals untransmittable.
Having said that, it is important to recognize that historically, Canada has had one of the highest rates of HIV criminalization in the world, with more than 200 cases documented to date. Even though this new directive is a significant step forward in reducing the stigmatization of Canadians living with HIV, there is a lot more work to be done. We call upon the federal government to reform Canada's Criminal Code to ensure that HIV-related prosecutions are removed from sexual assault law and are applied only to intentional transmission.
In addition, the federal directive only applies to Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Yukon, as they all fall under federal jurisdiction. The majority of people living with HIV reside in the other 10 provinces. We continue to call on the provincial governments to adopt the federal directive and update their prosecutorial guidance on HIV-related prosecutions. We would like to see our federal government work closely with its provincial counterparts to ensure the directive is standardized and consistent all across our country.
In closing, we would like to congratulate the federal government for taking this action, and we urge Ontario and the other provinces to also move forward.
Thank you for giving me the time to speak today.