[Viva] Fwd: FW: Legal Network News: November - news re. Bill C-393

Mon Nov 15 18:20:40 PST 2010

Let's keep on this, ladies!  I will be informing you of future actions.
Denise Becker

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ross Harvey <rossh at bcpwa.org>
Date: Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 4:47 PM
Subject: FW: Legal Network News: November
To: BCPWA Community Representation and Engagement <
BCPWACollectiveAdvocacy at bcpwa.org>, BCPWA Board of Directors <
BCPWABoardofDirectors at bcpwa.org>, BCPWA Program Coordination Team <
BCPWAProgramCoordinationTeam at bcpwa.org>

 FYI

Ross Harvey

Executive Director

BC Persons With AIDS Society

1107 Seymour Street, 2nd Floor

Vancouver, BC   V6B 5S8

t. 604.893.2252

f. 604.893.2251

c.604.788.9111

1.800.994.2437 <http://www.bcpwa.org/>

www.bcpwa.org

*Thanks to all who made BCPWA’s second annual Red Ribbon Breakfast an
outstanding success. With your support, and a special Red Ribbon Circle of
supporters, we raised $19,000 – over breakfast!***

 ------------------------------

*From:* Lindsey Amèrica-Simms [mailto:lsimms at aidslaw.ca]
*Sent:* Monday, November 15, 2010 6:08 AM
*To:* Ross Harvey
*Subject:* Legal Network News: November

**

LEGAL NETWORK NEWS

Issue 41 | *Nov  2010*

*Save the date*

The Legal Network’s Annual General Meeting and 3rd Annual Symposium on HIV,
Law and Human Rights will be held from* June 9–10, 2011 in Toronto*. You are
all invited, so please save these dates in your calendars and stay tuned for
event details.

*Join us on World AIDS Day*

This year for World AIDS Day, December 1st, the Legal Network would like to
invite you to join us for an important symposium being held jointly by the
African and Caribbean Council on HIV/AIDS in Ontario (ACCHO), HIV/AIDS Legal
Clinic Ontario (HALCO), and the Legal Network, entitled *CRIMINALS AND
VICTIMS? RACE, LAW AND HIV EXPOSURE IN ONTARIO*.  This symposium will launch
ACCHO’s paper on the impact of the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure on
African, Caribbean and Black communities.  While there have been efforts to
examine the general implications of the criminalization of HIV
non-disclosure, little attention has been given to its potential impact on
key vulnerable populations, including new immigrants, sex workers,
prisoners, people who use drugs, and members of racialized communities. This
event provides an important opportunity to learn more about these issues and
join the discussion on the need for effective policy and practice to
circumvent the impacts the current climate has on vulnerable communities.

The symposium will be held on *Wednesday, December 1st from 4:30 p.m. – 6:30
p.*m, at Bennett Lecture Hall at University of Toronto, 84 Queen’s Park
Circle.  This event will also be simultaneously broadcast on the internet.
To register, please email *Precious Maseko* at p.maseko at accho.ca by
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010.

*CAMR Reform Campaign heats up*

October was a challenging month for the campaign to reform Canada’s Access
to Medicines Regime (CAMR), the 2004 law on exporting lower-cost, generic
medicines to developing countries that has delivered so little.

Bill C-393 has been endorsed by dozens of Canadian civil society
organizations, prominent Canadians, and various international legal and
health experts as a sensible alternative to the current, dysfunctional
regime. In October, the Legal Network, along with intellectual property
experts and representatives from several prominent civil society
organizations working on HIV in the field, testified before the House of
Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on the merits
of Bill C-393 and the importance of the reforms to address the growing
global AIDS epidemic. This was followed by clause-by-clause hearings over
two days, marked by a protest in the committee room and on the street by
grandmothers from the national Grandmothers-to-Grandmothers Campaign over
the shameful and timid actions of some committee members seeking to simply
run out the clock and/or jettison the bill entirely. (Watch a video of their
demonstration at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMT--lMJQgY.)

Despite the overwhelming evidence that CAMR in its current form is a failure
and evidence from numerous experts that the reforms proposed by Bill C-393
could help make it workable, intensive lobbying by the brand-name
pharmaceutical industry led a majority of the committee members to play
politics with human lives. The five Conservative MPs on the committee,
joined by a single Liberal MP, stripped Bill C-393 of its key provisions —
including the “one-licence solution” — before reporting the bill back to the
House of Commons. (For more details and the names of MPs on the Committee,
see http://www.aidslaw.ca/publications/publicationsdocEN.php?ref=1131) As it
currently stands, Bill C-393 would leave the current flawed regime largely
unchanged.

In addition, Bill C-393 is currently without a sponsor in the House of
Commons. Its original sponsor, NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis (Winnipeg North)
stepped down from her seat in April. Her colleague, Brian Masse, the NDP’s
industry critic and MP for Windsor West, has taken up the cause as champion
of Bill C-393 before Committee and as would-be sponsor of the bill in the
House of Commons. (We thank them both for their tremendous support in this
effort!)

However, while there is little in the way of established precedent, it is
widely believed that transferring the bill to a new sponsor may require
unanimous consent of the House of Commons, meaning a single opposing voice
has the potential to kill the bill completely by denying it a new sponsor.
Earlier in the month, a Conservative MP disclosed to us that the
Conservatives were willing to oppose the request for a new sponsor and
effectively kill the bill on this procedural technicality. Such a move would
undermine the support that the bill attracted from all parties at second
reading and widespread public support — demonstrated not least by more than
10 000 postcards sent from across the country to the Industry Committee
alone.

In response, the Legal Network released an urgent action alert, asking
supporters to call the offices of federal party leaders, as well as
Conservative committee members Mike Lake and Mike Wallace, and urge them to
confirm that their party members would not vote against a new sponsor for
the bill when it returns to the House. We were thrilled to learn that this
action was supported by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and musician K’Naan,
and the issue gained national coverage in the *Globe and Mail* (
http://tinyurl.com/26by5kx).

There was a great momentum behind this action and it is reported that at
least a few MPs were overwhelmed by the number of phone calls that they
received. Thank you to all of you who participated — the response to this
action by our members was wonderful! While we still cannot be sure what will
happen when the matter of a new sponsor comes to a vote, it is important
that these MPs and party leaders are now aware that Canadians from across
the country are paying very close attention to their actions on this issue.
It is our hope that this level of public attention to the issue will
influence these MPs to make the right decision and ensure that a bill
supported not only by international experts and dozens of civil society
organization, but also by 80% of Canadians (see
http://www.aidslaw.ca/publications/publicationsdocEN.php?ref=994), is given
proper democratic consideration and is not derailed unfairly.

Now that the Industry Committee has stripped Bill C-393 of its key
provisions and sent it back to the House of Commons, there will be an
opportunity for further debate at “report stage”, likely sometime in
December. The Legal Network is working hard to re-introduce the one-licence
solution as an amendment. Grassroots supporters of the bill from across the
country are mobilizing to remind our MPs why reforming CAMR and ensuring
access to affordable medicines for the developing world is so important. We
encourage you to contact your local MP by phone, hand-written letter or
e-mail. Let them know that, as a constituent, you support reforming CAMR to
make it work, including the “one-licence solution” that must be restored to
Bill C-393 by the House of Commons when it comes up for a vote.  For more
information on how you can do this, please visit www.aidslaw.ca/camr.

*Criminalization of HIV: a tentative win and a pending decision*

In February of this year, the Legal Network intervened before the Court of
Appeal of Manitoba in the *Mabior *case. On October 15, the Court of Appeal
released its long-awaited judgment. Based on the facts and medical evidence
presented in the case, the Court of Appeal decided that when a condom was
carefully used or when the accused’s viral load was undetectable there was
no significant risk of HIV transmission; therefore, there was no duty to
disclose in those situations.  The appellant, who was convicted on six
counts of aggravated sexual assault for HIV non-disclosure at trial, was
acquitted on four counts, related to those encounters when a condom had been
carefully used or his viral load was undetectable.

We welcome the Court’s decision for recognizing that either condom use or an
undetectable viral load can be sufficient to rule out any criminal
liability. The Court of Appeal also recognized that the nature of the
disease has evolved with the availability of treatments and that HIV is no
longer a death sentence.  Therefore, while the Court was clear that HIV
infection still constitutes a “serious bodily harm” for purposes of the
criminal law of assault, it questioned whether exposing someone to a
significant risk of HIV transmission could constitute “endangering” the
person’s life. For a more detailed summary of the Court’s decision, see
http://www.aidslaw.ca/publications/publicationsdocEN.php?ref=1125. **

Lower courts (trial courts) in Manitoba will be bound by the decision of the
Court of Appeal. Outside of Manitoba, the decision will not be binding, but
it is likely to influence lower courts and Courts of Appeal from other
provinces in Canada. At this time we cannot exclude the possibility that the
decision might be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. However, this
decision is an encouraging sign that some headway is being made in limiting
the scope of the criminal law in cases of HIV non-disclosure.

*Push for Prosecutorial Guidelines*

While intervening in court cases is an important strategy for shaping the
law, it isn’t and shouldn’t be the only one — hence the Legal Network’s
active involvement in the Ontario Working Group on Criminal Law and HIV
Exposure. Bringing together community-based organizations and individual
activists, the Working Group seeks to ensure that the use of criminal law in
cases of HIV non-disclosure is compatible with scientific, medical, and
public health evidence, and does not hinder community efforts to prevent the
spread of HIV and to provide care treatment and support to people living
with HIV. Yet, many of the verdicts in these types of cases have ignored the
science and perpetuated HIV-related stigma.

On September 30, the Legal Network co-hosted an event to launch the Working
Group’s campaign for prosecutorial guidelines that would limit appropriately
the use of criminal law in cases of alleged HIV non-disclosure and help
ensure that HIV-related criminal complaints are handled in a fair and
non-discriminatory manner. The Working Group is collecting e-signatures from
Ontario residents for a letter addressed to the Attorney General, calling
for a public consultation on the need for guidelines.

If you are an Ontario resident and would like to learn more about this
campaign and sign on to this important initiative please visit
www.ontarioaidsnetwork.on.ca/clhe. If you do not live in Ontario, we ask
that you forward the link to your friends and colleagues who do live in
Ontario and encourage them to support the campaign by become a signatory.
This campaign is already sparking interest in other provinces and could be
useful for advocacy across the country on this issue.

*On the go*

Last month, we welcomed back senior policy analyst Alison Symington from her
maternity leave. Among other things, Alison will continue contributing to
our work on the issue of criminalization of HIV non-disclosure, as well as
taking the lead on creating a UNAIDS-commissioned handbook for training
judges on HIV-related legal issues.

Since his arrival, our new senior policy analyst Mikhail Golichenko has been
active in preparing submissions for a variety of UN human rights bodies
regarding human rights of people who use drugs, people in prison and others,
in countries such as Georgia, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and the
Russian Federation, as well as laying the groundwork for possible litigation
at the European Court of Human Rights on the issue of access to opioid
substitution treatment.

Legal Network staff members have been busy delivering workshops and
presentations to a wide range of community groups. In late-September,
executive director Richard Elliott joined other panellists for a
well-attended public forum on criminalization organized by the AIDS
Committee of Ottawa in the wake of a high-profile prosecution. In early
October, he also delivered a public lecture on the criminalization of HIV
non-disclosure in Edmonton as part of HIV Edmonton’s “Distinguished Speakers
Series” to mark its 25th anniversary. Deputy director Patricia Allard gave a
workshop for women, most of them recent immigrants, at a retreat organized
by the AIDS Committee of Toronto. Policy analyst Cécile Kazatchkine
delivered a workshop jointly with CAAN at the 4th Annual Aboriginal HIV/AIDS
& HCV Conference in Saskatoon. Later this month, she will be leading a
workshop on criminalization and HIV disclosure in Vancouver, being hosted by
BCPWA and YouthCO AIDS Society. Meanwhile, senior policy analyst Sandra Ka
Hon Chu will give a presentation later this month to community legal workers
at Toronto’s George Brown College on issues such as drug policy, sex
workers’ and prisoners’ rights, harm reduction and criminalization.

  *
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*About the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network*

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network (www.aidslaw.ca) promotes the human
rights of people living with and vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, in Canada and
internationally, through research, legal and policy analysis, education, and
community mobilization. The Legal Network is Canada’s leading advocacy
organization working on the legal and human rights issues raised by
HIV/AIDS.

Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network

1240 Bay Street, Suite 600

Toronto, Ontario, Canada  M5C 3A5

Telephone: +1 416 595-1666

Fax: +1 416 595-0094

E-mail: info at aidslaw.ca

Website: www.aidslaw.ca
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© 2010 Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
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