[Viva] Fwd: ICW NA Press Release - JM Criminalization Case

[Margarite Sanchez]

Not all good news ... unfortunately.
M

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ICW NA <icwnacontact at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 10:21 AM
Subject: ICW NA Press Release - JM Criminalization Case
To:


  For immediate release


WOMAN FOUND NOT GUILTY ON ORAL SEX COUNT,

COURT SENDS IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO PROSECUTORS

TORONTO, August 16, 2013 — A group of HIV organizations is relieved to
learn that a Barrie judge has found “JM,” an Ontario woman charged with
aggravated sexual assault for allegedly not disclosing her HIV-positive
status before sex, not guilty of aggravated sexual assault for oral sex.
The act was deemed to pose no realistic possibility of HIV transmission.

“She should never have had to fight the oral sex charge,” said Jessica
Whitbread, Global Chair of the International Community of Women with
HIV/AIDS. “We deplore the Crown’s insistence on prosecuting this charge
despite what the science tells us about the risk of transmission in cases
of oral sex.”

The Crown’s own expert, HIV specialist Dr. Irving Salit, said during the
trial, “You have a better chance of walking down the street and having a
piano land on your head than you do contracting HIV through oral sex.”

“Today’s decision sends an important message to Crown prosecutors who have
tried to expand the scope of the criminal law on HIV non-disclosure:
criminal prosecutions for oral sex are not warranted,” said Richard
Elliott, Executive Director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.

Sadly, this woman’s ordeal is not over as she has been convicted of one
count of aggravated sexual assault for not disclosing her status before
having unprotected vaginal sex, although at the time her viral load was
undetectable (meaning the risk of transmission was close to zero). She now
faces potential jail time on charges similar to those faced by violent
rapists. Her sentencing is next week.

This conviction is the result of a problematic decision released last year
by the Supreme Court of Canada. People living with HIV can now be convicted
of aggravated sexual assault for not disclosing their status unless they
use a condom and have a low viral load — at least in the context of vaginal
sex. The ruling was condemned by people living with HIV, AIDS activists and
legal experts as a major step backwards for public health and human rights.

To limit the use of the criminal law against people living with HIV, over
1,000 supporters of the Ontario Working Group on Criminal Law and HIV
Exposure (CLHE) have already called on the Ministry of the Attorney General
of Ontario to create prosecutorial guidelines, due this fall.

Said Elliott: “We continue to press the Ministry to fulfill its promise and
develop prosecutorial guidelines in accordance with science, international
recommendations and the expertise of people living with HIV and their
allies to put an end to unjust and harmful prosecutions against people
living with HIV.”

For additional information, see:

Positive Women: Exposing Injustice (free online documentary produced by the
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network): www.positivewomenthemovie.org
www.aidslaw.ca/criminallaw
www.clhe.ca

www.aidsactionnow.org

Contact:

Gilleen Witkowski
Communications and Media Relations Officer Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
gwitkowski at aidslaw.ca
416 595 1666 ext. 236 / 416 906 5554 (cell)
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