[Viva] HIV/AIDS Legal Network meeting

Sun Jun 12 13:48:58 PDT 2011

Amazing Denise!

Thank you!

check: vivabc on twitter

Meegwetch/Thank you/Merci
*Tami M. Starlight*
Vancouver, Canada
tamistarlight at gmail.com
tami.cosmic (facebook)
tami_starlight (twitter)
604-200-2445home
604-790-9943cell

On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 8:47 AM, Mary Smith <msmary45 at gmail.com> wrote:

> *HI Denise - Again thank you for investing your time to help us all
> understand what is happening out there.  Your report was very thorough and
> certainly worth reading.  I have never thought about twitter but you have
> sparked an interest.   Call me when you are free so we can plan a
> get-together.
>
> Enjoy your day (hopefully in the sun)
> Mary*
>
> On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 5:58 AM, Kath Webster <kathwebster at shaw.ca> wrote:
>
>> Denise,
>>
>> Thanks so much for this very comprehensive report on the Legal network
>> meeting.  You could make this into a Living Positive article!  Many very
>> critical issues.  You are passionate and articulate so an ideal person to be
>> involved with the network.  Just curious, are you on their board or in what
>> way are you involved?
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks for the encouragement around Twitter too.  I had thought  that if
>> you don’t have an iphone or smart phone (meaning the internet at your finger
>> tips), then there’s no point in getting into Twitter.  Do you think it’s
>> still useful for those of us who just use our computers to go online?
>>
>> Kath
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* viva-bounces at lists.resist.ca [mailto:viva-bounces at lists.resist.ca]
>> *On Behalf Of *Denise Becker
>> *Sent:* June-11-11 12:02 PM
>> *To:* viva
>> *Subject:* [Viva] HIV/AIDS Legal Network meeting
>>
>>
>>
>> I thought some of you might like feedback on the meeting I attended
>> between Wednesday and Friday.  I will try to lay it out in point form so you
>> can read it a little easier:
>>
>>
>>
>> 1.  HIV and the Media
>>
>>
>>
>> There was a workshop of the media and how HIV is being covered these days.
>>  The people speaking were very interesting and included a CBC reporter, a
>> French reporter for Radio Canada, the Managing Editor for the Global
>> Network, the tweeter for the Toronto Star and the tweeter for Pozitive Lite,
>> which is a blog for positive people and is run by Bob Leahy from Ontario.
>>  Incidentally, I talked to Bob during the meeting and I have also tweeted to
>> him on Twitter.  He has let me know he would like me to blog for them once a
>> week so that they get a woman's perspective.
>>
>>
>>
>> The media panel talked about the apathy surrounding HIV by the general
>> public these days and they also talked about how they worked with the Legal
>> Network to get the story out on Bill C393 and Access to Medicines in Africa.
>>
>>
>>
>> I told them I was consistently seeing "good news" stories about research
>> and yet they seemed to be reporting "bad news" stories on individuals and
>> this makes it difficult for people to get over the stigma and get out with
>> their brave stories of fighting the disease.  I also told them that I felt
>> there is a thin line between reporting the news and making the news, i.e.
>> when are they actually reporting and when are they swaying public opinion?
>>
>>
>>
>> They said they are very concerned when they report stories and see stupid
>> comments after them and because of their journalistic viewpoint they cannot
>> add their voice to comments when they know many of the comments are from
>> ignorant people who demonize HIV and don't understand it.
>>
>>
>>
>> I had a good chat with the lady from CBC and the French reporter
>> afterwards and they wanted to keep in touch.
>>
>>
>>
>> Bob, from Pozitive Lite and Ken Buchanan from Positive Living BC and I
>> discussed "coming out" with your status and we all agreed it was a very
>> difficult thing to do but none of us had regretted it and we felt we were
>> now fighting the stigma with our contributions at conferences.
>>
>>
>>
>> I cannot emphasize enough how important Twitter is getting now and how
>> many people who tweet think of Facebook as "old school".  The good thing is
>> you can tweet with total anonymity since you can choose a false name (the
>> term for this is a "handle") and no one knows when you are online.  If you
>> want to get into HIV conversations and want to be anonymous, this could be
>> the way to go, just don't be put off with your first experience of Twitter
>> and try to stay with it.  I will be sending you all an email soon on how to
>> get on to Twitter, use it, make friends with people who are HIV+ and get the
>> latest research.
>>
>>
>>
>> 2.  Criminalization of HIV
>>
>>
>>
>> There is an important case going on right now.  It is a case which has a
>> press embargo on it and so there is very little that can be said in the
>> media that we can hear about.  All I know is that it is a case in which the
>> viral load of the person is being taken into account when they did not
>> inform their sex partner that they were HIV+.  The court is examining
>> whether the argument can be used anymore that a person has malicious intent
>> when not revealing their HIV status if they are undetectable and whether
>> they are likely to pass on the virus.  There was a win for those who argued
>> that there was no malicious intent because there was no infection and that
>> it the undetectable viral load meant the person was not acting in a way that
>> meant to kill someone.  The Crown has decided to appeal the ruling to the
>> Supreme Court and I believe the case will be heard on Monday.  It is pretty
>> exciting to find out what will happen and the lawyer was there who was
>> arguing the case and discussed his strategy so far.
>>
>>
>>
>> 3.  Insite
>>
>>
>>
>> There were lawyers at the workshop who are arguing the Insite case, where
>> the downtown supervised injection site has come under attack from the
>> Federal Government.  In addition, Vandu were at the meeting and discussing
>> what action they have taken and how the site is working and saving lives.
>>  The argument here is that the site is saving lives and doing no harm.  This
>> may take a while to finally get a decision but David Eby, a civil rights
>> lawyer was talking about how ridiculous it was that Insite is being attacked
>> when it will not put an end to shooting up and it is actually a point of
>> education and assistance for many wanting to get away from drug use.
>>
>>
>>
>> 4.  Sex Trade Workers
>>
>>
>>
>> There was a lady from Montreal talking about sex trade work and in
>> particular the Pickton Trial.  This has made it a good time to start
>> advocating for women who have to put themselves at risk by hiding out in
>> order to do their work and the risk this puts them in.  She talked about how
>> she got involved with sex work and that she was not pushed into it but
>> rather started it at 26 years of age in order to put herself through
>> university.  She made a joke about the University actually profiting off the
>> avails of street work! hah!  She told of the precautions she takes when she
>> meet a guy and he comes to her apartment and she sounded like an extremely
>> clever lady who is protecting herself very well.  I was very impressed with
>> what a wonderful advocate this lady was for her trade and she said that not
>> all women want to get off the street because of the declaration of income
>> and freedom it gives them but others do and they should be accommodated and
>> not made into criminals!
>>
>>
>>
>> That is all I can think of for now and if you want to ask me any questions
>> or know more, then I would love to hear from you.
>>
>>
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Denise
>> ------------------------------
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