Justice committee  That's an interesting question. I think we still, in terms of procedure, have to have the right actors around the table before we make that decision, because this is a complex issue. However, if you were to ask me if I could connect the dots to the harms of the use of aggravated

Justice committee  Yes, that's my position, and it goes back to the point I made. I teach first-year criminal law at the University of Ottawa, and one of the basic precepts of criminal law is that you're supposed to be able to pick up the code, go to the relevant offence, and make a decision about

Justice committee  I don't think it's very firm at all, because if another government comes to power, the prosecutorial directive could be changed fairly easily. In the way that it was created, it could be taken away without any kind of a formal process.

Justice committee  That's a good question. I was grappling with this question. I think we need to go to paragraph 265(3)(c), which is the fraud provision of the Criminal Code. What you could think about doing is defining fraud to exclude HIV non-disclosure of status. Keep the fraud provision potent

Justice committee  You could do it that way, or you could say that the other Criminal Code offences that exist on the books—perhaps criminal negligence causing bodily harm—outside of the scope of sexual assault would apply in that circumstance.

Justice committee  I think what's really important is that you have the right actors around the table when you do that, because at the moment it's still early days, but one thing I would want to do is make sure that, for example, you had folks from the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund at the

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning. My name is Kyle Kirkup. I am an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. Over the past decade I have published a series of peer-reviewed articles about the criminal law's regulation of gender and sexuality in Canada, in