That's a great question. Thank you so much, Randall.
As I'm sure you all know, there are criminal laws surrounding the transmission of HIV currently in Canada. This, in combination with the criminalization of sex work, creates numerous complications for people who are surveilled by police because they are known to police as sex workers or suspected to be sex workers.
In the study I mentioned that was commissioned by the Department of Justice, there was one story that I'd like to tell on that subject. One of the participants in the study was assaulted in the context of her life as a sex worker. She reported the assault to the police and in the process of reporting, she disclosed her HIV status to the police. The police then disclosed her HIV status to her assailant. She ended up with criminal charges for the transmission of HIV when she was reporting her own sexual assault to the police.
This is exactly the kind of issue that prevents sex workers from accessing any form of safety from the police. It stems from the way sex workers are treated by the police whenever they come into contact with them. It leads to a climate of fear. It leads to a climate where sex workers are less likely to even get tested for HIV because they fear that if they are exposed as HIV-positive or if they have evidence that they're HIV-positive, it will be used against them by police in the future.
All of that becomes extremely complicated in a context where sex workers are constantly being surveilled by the police. It discourages them from getting the health supports that they need. It prevents them from accessing safer sex materials as well.