[Viva] HIV/AIDS Legal Network meeting

Sun Jun 12 21:05:26 PDT 2011

Thanks, I doubt I will be reporting on this issue for Living Positive
Magazine since William from Positive Living Board was there and was taking
comprehensive notes.
D

On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 1:48 PM, Tami Starlight <tamistarlight at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> No virus found in this message.
>>> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>>> Version: 10.0.1382 / Virus Database: 1513/3693 - Release Date: 06/10/11
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Viva mailing list
>>> Viva at lists.resist.ca
>>> https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/viva
>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Viva mailing list
>> Viva at lists.resist.ca
>> https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/viva
>>
>>
>
>
> --
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Viva mailing list
> Viva at lists.resist.ca
> https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/viva
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/viva/attachments/20110612/0a2e47be/attachment.html>