[SWAF-Potluck] Legal Precedent: Court-Enforced HIV Treatment

[Andy Sorfleet]

Here is my latest on The Naked Truth! 

Legal Precedent: Court Enforced HIV Treatment and Testing
http://www.nakedtruth.ca/2019/09/legal-precedent-court-enforced-hiv.html

A version of this post was published on the CATIE Blog (Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange) at the end of July.

There is a link to a full brief on the Vancouver Coastal Health v. David Hynd case. As the push to move HIV nondisclosure out of criminal law into provincial public health law, we can see how public health law using court orders could also be used to regulate morality (which is federal jurisdiction).

One may assume that such drastic public-health-order actions that included invoking courts and arrest were initiated because of HIV transmission to others and dishonesty about HIV-positive status. However, those health details are confidential, and Hynd’s first court appearance for refusing to comply with Medical Health Officer (MHO) orders is under publication ban.

The MHO orders were based on a new 2017 B.C. Centre for Disease Control policy guideline that names "sex workers" for risk of HIV transmission to the greater community. As well, the policy states:

In settings or contexts which public health authorities consider to be high risk for HIV transmission—including exchanging goods or money for sex, anonymous sex in gay bathhouses, or in a group sharing needles—the guidelines advise that HIV-positive persons cannot be expected to be disclosing their HIV status to each partner.

Copies of the full BCCDC guidelines, the probation order and the swearing of information by MHOs are included in the appendices in the full brief.

In solidarity,
Andy

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/swaf-potluck/attachments/20190902/09bf1ab9/attachment.html>