[Viva] HIV/AIDS Legal Network meeting

Thu Sep 1 09:02:49 PDT 2011

i had a crazy idea and thought i would run it by you. I know that the man in motion is doing a 25th anniversary run across the country and i wonder if someone could approach Rick Hansen or the Foundation about having a sidearm about running beyond the stigma for HIV, mental illness, and a host of other things by having people join him across the country.  I was thinking how powerful it would be to have people who were positive ride or run or wheel alongside Rick and let the world know that it is OK to be HIV+ and also that like spinal cord injury it is a tough disability to live with, but the strong among us get stronger from it.  Maybe it's entirely too insane...

love you all for the strengths that you have and the sharing that you do.

Denise I am not in Vancouver until later in September and am sorry that I cannot meet you there.  I would love to sometime soon. And actually am overdue to see both Margarite and Kath too. 

Love  -peg
Peggy Frank
positively AFRICA
2092 Byron Street, Victoria,  BC 
Canada V8R 1L9
info at positivelyafrica.org
www.positivelyafrica.org

On 2011-06-11, at 12:58 PM, Kath Webster 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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