September 25, 2012 – The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Prisoners with HIV/AIDS Support Action Network (PASAN), CATIE, the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN) and Steven Simons, a former federal prisoner, launched a lawsuit against the Government of Canada over its failure to protect the health of people in prison through its ongoing refusal to implement clean needle and syringe programs to prevent the spread of HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in federal institutions. 

Steven Simons was incarcerated in Warkworth Institution from 1998 to 2010, where he was infected with hepatitis C when a fellow prisoner used his drug injection equipment.

“When I was in prison, I would see people passing one homemade needle around and sharpening it with matchbooks. The needle would be dirty and held together with hot glue. I watched people shove a dull needle to try to penetrate their skin, creating craters, abscesses and disfigurements,” says Simons. Simons is intent on ensuring others don’t continue to suffer for no reason. He adds, “I wanted to be involved in this case to save lives and prevent the spread of hepatitis and HIV.”

In Canada, people in prison — a disproportionate number of whom are Aboriginal and suffer from drug dependence — face rates of HIV and HCV infection that are at least 10 and 30 times higher, respectively, than in the overall population. These figures are even higher for women in prison. People who inject drugs behind bars are more likely to share and reuse injection equipment than people in the community because they are denied access to sterile injecting equipment while in prison, significantly increasing their risk of contracting HIV and HCV. This risk will only be exacerbated by the recent passage of Bill C-10, the so-called Safe Streets and Communities Act, an “omnibus” crime bill that will further increase Canada’s prison population as more and more people are incarcerated for non-violent drug offences.

Currently, no Canadian prison permits the distribution of sterile injection equipment to prisoners, despite overwhelming evidence of the health protection benefits of such programs from other countries where they have been operating for years.

“People do not surrender their human rights when they enter prison, including their right to access health services equivalent to those outside prisons. Society should not sentence people to a higher risk of infection with HIV or hepatitis,” said Sandra Ka Hon Chu, Senior Policy Analyst with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. “The federal government has the evidence showing that such programs providing access to sterile injection equipment are urgently needed in Canadian prisons and that they are successful elsewhere. The failure to act on this evidence has resulted in avoidable HIV and HCV infections that are personally devastating and also very costly to the public purse. Prison health is public health.”

Further resources and updates can be found at http://www.prisonhealthnow.ca/

Here are also a few links to recent reports in the media: 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/09/25/aids-organizations-lawsuit-needle-exchange.html

http://www.ipolitics.ca/2012/09/25/prison-syringe-bans-threaten-inmate-health-planned-charter-case/

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/prison-inmates-take-ottawa-to-court-over-access-to-clean-needles/article4566054/?service=mobile

Read our original story here. 

Just two weeks ago, some 24,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C for the XIX International AIDS Conference. The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network was there, co-hosting the Human Rights Networking Zone, and sharing our important work on human rights and HIV in Canada and abroad.

Activists, health workers, researchers, government officials and people living with HIV from around the world left the conference inspired and committed to turning the tide on the global epidemic, with the understanding that defending and achieving human rights are an essential part of the effort. Here at home, the Legal Network is as focused as ever on continuing our critical work despite drastic cuts to our budget from the federal government.

You may have already received our recent communication about our budget cut of two-thirds. On Tuesday, the Globe and Mail published a hard-hitting article about our plight entitled “Fearing Advocacy, Ottawa rejects HIV/AIDS funding proposals.” 

The article has generated more than 500 comments to date, the majority of which are overwhelmingly positive and supportive of the Legal Network and our work. The Globe and Mail also highlighted a letter of response from Ted Schrecker, Principal Scientist at the Institute of Population Health (University of Ottawa), who writes:

“The decision by Health Canada to turn down many of the funding requests made by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network on the basis that the activities in question involve ‘advocacy purposes’ is bizarre. The network has a long distinguished record related to preventing HIV infection and protecting the rights of those infected. Some forms of ‘advocacy’ are intrinsic to those activities, as indeed they are to health promotion as a whole.”

We completely agree. If you do, too, please stand with us in solidarity by becoming a member of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network or renewing your membership today, www.aidslaw.ca/joinus.

And time is of the essence. The coming months are shaping up to be extremely active for the Legal Network, featuring critical issues with far-reaching consequences for those living with HIV and AIDS. For example, we will receive the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling in R. v D.C. and R. v Mabior on the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure — on which we spearheaded an intervention. In addition, we will also rally support for Bill C-398, the new legislation to reform Canada’s Access to Medicine Regime, and step up the ongoing effort for comprehensive HIV prevention in Canada’s prisons.

While this funding cut is a significant set back, with your help it can also be an opportunity. Canadian NGOs are facing a difficult time, especially those who tackle important public issues and speak out for human rights. Funding cuts put many at risk of closing their doors. In order to keep fighting on behalf of those whose voices may otherwise go unheard, we need to bring together a united group of individuals, foundations and other supporters like yourself, who understand how important it is for the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network to continue its work towards fully realizing the human rights of people living with and vulnerable to HIV.

If you haven’t already done so, please become a member today. And if you are able, consider making a donation,

On December 1, 2012, the Legal Network will be marking 20 years of human rights, research and action with a public celebration event (details to follow). For now, we thank you for your continued support and for standing with us during a challenging time in our organization’s history.

In solidarity,

Richard Elliott, Executive Director, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network

I am writing to share some very important news and to appeal for your solidarity and support.

As the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network marks its 20th anniversary, we face an unprecedented challenge with recent news of a drastic cut in funding under Canada’s federal AIDS strategy — a cut that significantly undermines our ability to continue our work in defending and promoting human rights in the response to HIV.

For most of its history, the Legal Network has been seen by the federal government as a valuable partner in Canada’s response to HIV, given our expertise in challenging the inequities that fuel the HIV epidemic and addressing the legal questions and concerns of people living with HIV, front-line agencies and policy-makers alike. 

With previous support under the Federal Initiative to Address HIV/AIDS in Canada, the Legal Network has developed high-quality resources widely used by AIDS service organizations, public health professionals, lawyers and thousands of people living with or vulnerable to HIV and AIDS across the country and around the world. 

But it has become increasingly difficult in recent years to secure support for the human rights work that is at the core of our mission.  For example, activities to protect the human rights of some of those most vulnerable to HIV, such as access to harm reduction services for people who use drugs and for people in prison, appear to have been deemed de facto un-fundable, as has any activity deemed to be “advocacy.”  Indeed, as we have been advised explicitly in recent weeks, it now appears the government will not fund any activity that may produce a resource that could be used for advocacy.

The implications of such an approach are disturbing, to say the least. Since the onset just over thirty years ago, the HIV epidemic has highlighted starkly the role that ignorance and fear play in fuelling prejudice and discrimination, and the critical importance of empowering communities with information – including information they need to defend their human rights to equitable access to effective HIV prevention and treatment services.  The history of the epidemic has also demonstrated the crucial role of community organizations in protecting human rights and ensuring government policies support effective measures to treat people living with HIV and prevent new infections.

For the past 20 years, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network has been dedicated to this cause.  Stephen Lewis, the former United Nations Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa, co-director of AIDS-Free World and the founder of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, has called the Legal Network “a global leader in advancing the cause of protecting, respecting and fulfilling the rights of people affected by and living with HIV/AIDS.”

However, in the latest round of Federal Initiative funding reviews, our proposal was subjected to an unprecedented level of scrutiny at the highest levels within Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada — the only proposal from a national AIDS organization to receive such scrutiny.

Finally, months after all other proposals had been reviewed (and most of them largely approved), we recently received news that only a few select activities in our proposal would be eligible for funding.  This represents a significant defunding of the Legal Network from previous years — a cut of two-thirds. 

Virtually all of the activities – including activities previously supported by government funding – were deemed ineligible for funding because the educational resources to be produced might be used for advocacy.  Even those activities which have been approved are subject to restrictions on which human rights issues may be addressed.  For example, addressing the human rights of certain communities is not permitted, even though they are recognized explicitly in the government’s own AIDS strategy as communities particularly affected by HIV.

Despite this, we remain committed to our vision — a world in which the human rights of people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS are fully realized, and in which laws and policies facilitate HIV prevention, care, treatment and support.

You can help us realize this vision by taking action.  Become a member and make a donation today.

Since 1992, the Legal Network has been fighting to ensure that all people enjoy the fundamental right to the highest attainable standard of health, as per international law.  We intervene on complex issues that affect the lives of thousands of people around the world.  We are making advances on critical human rights issues through a combination of direct support work on individual cases, big-picture thinking, and legal research and analysis, as well as awareness-raising and education. Consider what we’ve done in the past year alone:

We spearheaded the campaign to fix Canada’s failed Access to Medicines Regime, to support developing countries responding to HIV and other treatable illnesses by supplying affordable generic drugs.  This work continues in the year ahead with a new bill re-introduced in Parliament.

We’ve spoken out against the new federal “omnibus” crime bill that will ultimately result in more people with addictions behind bars, a recipe for entirely preventable damage to both individual and public health — and we continue to press the case for access to comprehensive HIV prevention services in prisons.

We’ve intervened on the landmark “D.C” case to the Supreme Court, fighting against the unjust criminalization of people living with HIV. “D.C” is one of the women we spotlight in our groundbreaking new documentary on the issue: “Positive Women – Exposing Injustice” .

We’re working, with partner organizations across the country, to deliver dozens of workshops for front-line workers and produce educational resources answering the many legal questions they confront in their work. 

We’re regularly in the media, addressing important questions about HIV and challenging HIV-related stigma and discrimination. 

But the major cut to our funding represents a significant blow to the sustainability of our work, at a time when the need is greater than ever. People are counting on the Legal Network to defend and promote sound public policies, rooted in evidence and human rights, to help curb stigma and discrimination, to promote access to care for those living with HIV, and to help stop the epidemic.

We ask, therefore, that you stand with us in solidarity by becoming a member and making a donation to our work by 15 August 2012.

If you were previously member but haven’t yet renewed your membership for 2012/13, please take a moment now to do so.  If you are not currently a member, please join us in defending and promoting human rights by visiting www.aidslaw.ca/joinus.  

Whether or not you are a member, you can support us by making a donation. Simply visit www.aidslaw.ca/donate.

Canadian NGOs are facing a difficult time, especially those who tackle important public issues and speak out for human rights.  Funding cuts put many at risk of closing their doors.  We will be using this opportunity and our 20th anniversary to bring together a united group of individuals, foundations and other supporters who understand how important it is for the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network to continue its critical work towards fully realizing the human rights of people living with and vulnerable to HIV.

But we cannot do this without your support.  Please stand with us today.  Take the first step — become a member, make a donation and learn more.

Our 20th anniversary is a pivotal moment for the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.  With your help, we will be able to keep fighting well into the future, on behalf of those who depend on the Legal Network and our commitment to human rights for all.

With appreciation for your support to date and in the future, 

Richard Elliott, Executive Director

David Eby, President, Board of Directors

Access to medicines, globally and domestically

At the end of 2010, of the estimated 15 million people in clinical need of life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, an estimated 9 million were without access. This number will grow unless concerted action is taken. Over the last decade, significant progress has been made in scaling up access to AIDS treatment, thanks largely to harnessing the power of generic competition. But developing countries are facing pressure to refrain from adopting policies that would increase access to lower-cost generics and new trade agreements are being negotiated that would impose even more impediments to generics access. On a smaller scale, these pressures are also facing developed countries. As Canada and the EU negotiate a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, intellectual property issues are one of the remaining contentious points. Leaked text of the draft agreement suggests Canada and the EU are on the verge of finalizing proposals that would further restrict the introduction of cost-saving generics into the Canadian market when patents expire, unnecessarily driving up health care costs at a time of budget pressures.

Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime — passed unanimously by Parliament in 2004, but unusable because of unnecessary red tape — could help ease the burden for millions of dying people in the developing world. A bill to streamline the law passed with a large majority in Parliament in March 2011, but was fatally stalled in the Senate at the behest of Big Pharma until it died on the Order Paper. With strong public support (80% in a nationwide poll last year), this bill needs to be reintroduced in Parliament and passed once and for all.

Drug policy, prisons and harm reduction

The Supreme Court of Canada’s recent decision in favour of Insite — Vancouver’s safe injection site — was a great victory for science and reason. But questions remain whether the federal government will abide by this decision and consider new applications for safe injection sites in other municipalities, or whether it will continue to force service providers to go to court each and every time, wasting taxpayer dollars in opposing evidence-based, life-saving health services for some of Canada’s most marginalized and at-risk populations.

The federal government’s attitude toward the needs of these populations is again on display in its short-sighted omnibus crime bill. Bill C-10 will implement mandatory minimum sentences for even minor drug offences, despite the abundantly documented harm such measures will have — to the public purse, to human rights and of course, to public health. As prisons become overcrowded through increased convictions, more people will be exposed to risks of infection by HIV and hepatitis C — particularly since the government also refuses to implement basic prevention measures for prisoners, such as needle exchange programs. This prison epidemic will ultimately find its way back into the community at large.

Criminalization of HIV non-disclosure

In recent years, a surge of prosecutions against people living with HIV has included troubling charges for some of most serious offences in the Criminal Code, even in cases where there has been no significant risk of transmission of HIV — in effect, criminalizing a person simply on the basis of his/her HIV-positive status. Sensationalized accounts of these cases appearing in certain media have only served to further stigmatize people living with HIV. The lack of clarity, reason and fairness in the law has highlighted the importance of getting prosecutorial guidelines in place to ensure that prosecutors are guided by the best available science when deciding whether and how to proceed with charges. In Ontario, a community coalition has done consultations around the province and is calling on the Attorney General to follow through on earlier commitments to develop such guidelines, working with community. Interest is growing in other provinces as well.

At the same time, two important appellate court decisions (in Manitoba and Quebec) have recognized that there must be limits to the use of the criminal law, as the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network has long argued, maintaining that the law needs to evolve with the science of HIV. In hearing appeals to both these cases early next year (February 7, 2012), the Supreme Court of Canada will have a chance to revisit its original 1998 decision on this issue (R. v. Cuerrier) and clarify the law. As part of a broad coalition, the Legal Network will be intervening to urge the Court to affirm that disclosure is only required where there is a “significant risk” of HIV transmission and that this clearly excludes certain situations, such as cases of condom use or an undetectable viral load on the part of the HIV-positive person.

HIV among Aboriginal people

HIV has taken a significant and disproportionate toll on Aboriginal communities across Canada, fuelled by various factors that undermine the health of Aboriginal people generally. Approximately 3.8 percent of Canadians self-identify as Aboriginal, yet in 2008 (the most recent year for which data has been issued by the Public Agency of Canada), Aboriginal people accounted for an estimated 8 percent of all people living with HIV and about 12.5 percent of all new HIV infections. Overall, infections are seen at a younger age among Aboriginal people and also affect a higher proportion of women than in the non-Aboriginal population.

The lived experience of HIV-positive Aboriginal persons sits at the intersection of several systemic issues, including discrimination, poorer access to health services (including delayed uptake of HIV treatment), and addiction. With injection drug use as the single greatest category of exposure to HIV for Aboriginal persons, they are thus disproportionately vulnerable to policies that punish people who use drugs, such as the “tough-on-crime” law enforcement measures that Bill C-10 will impose and barriers to harm reduction services, both inside and outside of prison.

Funding the response to AIDS, domestically and globally

At home, federal funding for HIV has been flat-lined since 2007 and, as of this writing, it is unknown whether federal funding will be cut even further next year. Cuts and delays in funding would have serious implications for front-line community services that do HIV prevention and support services, and most importantly, the people who depend on those services.

On the global front, just as we are seeing results from sustained global investments in HIV prevention and treatment, funding is stalling and governments are failing to support what is needed. In 2010, UNAIDS estimated a $10 billion shortfall for a comprehensive and effective global AIDS response. In the US, PEPFAR funding is stagnating and eroding. Globally, donor support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria — the most effective multilateral source of funding for prevention and treatment of HIV, TB and malaria — has fallen short of the minimum required just to sustain current efforts, let alone expand to maintain its momentum in turning the tide on the epidemic. In fact, just last week the Global Fund was forced to take the extraordinary decision to cancel the latest round of funding opportunities and exclude many countries from applying for current renewals in funding as well as future funding opportunities.

Though Canada made a welcome increase of 20 percent in its latest round of commitments to the Global Fund, our contribution still comes to just over $5 per Canadian per year — 1/3 of the price of a movie ticket. We can and should double that amount and make a commitment of at least 5 years. We also must pay our annual share by December 31, 2011, just to honour our current commitment. This modest contribution would still leave our overall official development assistance (ODA) far below the internationally agreed-upon target for of 0.7 percent of Canada’s gross national income — a target Canada helped set at the UN more than 4 decades ago but has never reached.

Further resources can be found at www.aidslaw.ca.