Who? What? Where? When? And with what consequences? An analysis of criminal cases of HIV non-disclosure in Canada

Canadian Journal of Law and Society

Volumn 27, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 31-53

  Mykhalovskiy, Eric ^a   Betteridge, Glenn ^b  

^a YORK UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

^b Jonathan Glenn Betteridge Legal and Policy Consulting   (Canada)

Author keywords

Canada; Criminal law; HIV non disclosure; Patterns; Trends

Indexed keywords

EID: 84861395039     PISSN: 08293201     EISSN: 19110227     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3138/cjls.27.1.031     Document Type: Article

References (57)

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2. E. Mykhalovskiy, "The Problem of 'Significant Risk': Exploring the Public Health Impact of Criminalizing HIV Non-disclosure", Social Science and Medicine 73(2011):670-77;
3. P. O'Byrne, "Criminal Law and Public Health Practice: Are die Canadian HIV Disclosure Laws an Effective HIV Prevention Strategy?" Sexuality Research and Social Policy 9, 1(2012):70-79.
4. S. Burris and E. Cameron, "The Case against Criminalization of HIV Transmission", Journal of the American Medical Association 300, 5(2008):578-80;
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6. UNAIDS, Criminalization of HIV Transmission. Policy Brief (2008);
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8. Y. Azad, "Developing Guidance for HIV Prosecutions: An Example of Harm Reduction?" HIV/AIDS Policy and Law Review 13, 1(2008):13-19.
9. For recent examples see Mykhalovskiy, "The Problem with 'Significant Risk'";
10. C. Dodds et al., "Responses to Criminal Prosecutions for HIV Transmission among Gay Men with HIV in England and Wales", Reproductive Health Matters 17, 34(2009):135-45;
11. B. Adam et al., "Effects of the Criminalization of HIV Transmission in Cuerrier on Men Reporting Unprotected Sex with Men", Canadian Journal of Law and Society 23, 1-2(2008):143-59, http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jls.0.0040;
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17. R v Cuerrier, [1998] 2 SCR 371.
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19. Ontario Working Group on Criminal Law and HIV Exposure, "We Need Prosecutorial Guidelines for HIV Non-Disclosure", www. Ontarioaidsnetwork. on. ca/clhe.
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24. R. Elliott, After Cuerrier: Canadian Criminal Law and the Non-disclosure of HIV-Positive Status (Toronto: Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, 1999).
25. See Mykhalovskiy et al., HIV Non-disclosure and the Criminal Law.
26. In December 2010, following lobbying efforts by CLHE, MAG committed to producing prosecutorial guidance for criminal cases of HIV non-disclosure and other sexually transmitted infections. On CLHE's activist work see T. McCaskell, "Disrupting the Criminalization of HIV", Our Schools Our Selves 20, 3(2011):133-56.
27. E. Mykhalovskiy and C. Sanders", 'There is no excuse for this wanton, reckless, self-indulgent behavior': A Critical Analysis of Media Representation of the Criminalization of HIV Non-disclosure in Canada" (paper presented at Ontario HIV Treatment Network Annual Conference, Toronto, 2008).
28. Mykhalovskiy et al., HIV Non-disclosure and the Criminal Law.
29. See, e.g., J. V. Roberts, "Racism and the Collection of Statistics Relating to Race and Ethnicity", in Crimes of Colour: Racialization and the Criminal Justice System in Canada, ed. W. Chan and K. Mirchandani, 101-12 (Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2001);
30. S. Wortley, "Hidden Intersections: Research on Race, Crime, and Criminal Justice in Canada", Canadian Ethnic Studies 35, 3(2003):99-117.
31. A. Owusu-Bempah and P. Millar, "Revisiting the Collection of' Justice Statistics by Race' in Canada", Canadian Journal of Law and Society 25, 1(2010):97-104, http://dx.doi.org/10. 1353/jls.0.0107.
32. A. Merminod, "The Deterrence Rationale in the Criminalization of HIV/AIDS", Lex Electronica 13, 3(2009):2-34.
33. A. Symington, "Criminalization Confusion and Concern: The Decade since the Cuerrier Decision," HIV/AIDS Policy and Law Review 14, 1(2009):5-10;
34. Grant, "The Boundaries of the Criminal Law"
35. R. Elliott, "Criminalization Creep: Legal Developments and Community Responses to Criminal Prosecutions for HIV Exposure" (paper presented at OHTN Research Conference, Toronto, 2009).
36. P. Mallea, The Fear Factor Stephen Harper's "Tough on Crime Agenda" (Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2010).
37. On positive prevention see J. Fisher, L. Smith, and E. Lenz, "Secondary Prevention of HIV in the United States: Past, Current and Future Perspectives", Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome 55(2010):S106-15.
38. E. Mykhalovskiy, "Integrating HIV Treatment and Prevention: Shifts in Community-Based Organizing and Biopofitics in the Canadian Context", in HIV Treatment and Prevention Technologies in International Perspective, ed. M. Davis and C. Squire, 61-86 (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).
39. In R v Williams, [2003] 2 SCC 41 at para 28, the Supreme Court of Canada suggested that once an individual becomes aware that he or she has faced a risk of contracting HIV, and hence that his or her partner's consent has become an issue, the individual is obliged to disclose that awareness to his or her sexual partner.
40. Mykhalovskiy and Sanders", There Is No Excuse
41. For a discussion see P. Allard, C. Kazatchkine, and A. Symington, "Criminal Prosecutions for HIV Non-disclosure: Protecting Women from Infection or Threatening Prevention Efforts?" in Women and HIV Prevention in Canada: The Past, the Present and the Future-Implications for Research, Policy and Practice, ed. J. Gahagan (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, forthcoming).
42. B. Adam et al., "Circuits, Networks, and HIV Risk Management", AIDS Education and Prevention 20(2008):420-35.
43. In a recent paper drawing on a range of drug-using cohorts in the Vancouver area, Marshall and colleagues report an HIV prevalence rate of 21.2% among male heterosexual drug users. B. Marshall et al., "Pathways to HIV Risk and Vulnerability among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Methamphetamine Users: A Multi-cohort Gender-Based Analysis", BMC Public Health 11, 20 (2011).
44. J. Miller, "African Immigrant Damnation Syndrome: The Case of Charles Ssenyonga", Sexuality Research and Social Policy 2, 2(2005):31-50;
45. African and Caribbean Council on HIV/AIDS in Ontario (ACCHO), Criminals and Victims? Race, Law and HIV Exposure in Ontario (Toronto, 2010).
46. S. Wortley and J. Tanner, "Data, Denials and Confusion: The Racial Profiling Debate in Toronto", Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 45(2003):367-89, http://dxdoi.org/10.3138/cjccj.45.3.367; (Pubitemid 37374363)
47. D. V. Janoff, Pink Blood: Homophobic Violence in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005).
48. B. Adam, "What Do HIV-Positive People Think about the Criminalization of HIV Transmission? Results from the Positive Spaces Healthy Places Survey" (paper presented at the OHTN Research Conference, November 2010).
49. ACCHO, Criminals and Victims.
50. See, e.g., J. Roberts and A. Doob, "Race, Ethnicity, and Criminal Justice in Canada", in Ethnicity, Crime and Immigration: Comparative and Cross-National Perspectives, vol. 21, ed. M. Tonry, 469-522 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997). (Pubitemid 127036512)
51. We received two widely different estimates of the proportion of HIV-positive men in Ontario who are Black. The Ontario HIV Epidemiological Monitoring Unit's estimate of 57.8% was based on modelled HIV prevalence using 2007 surveillance data; a second estimate of 22.6% from the OHTN was based on data from the Ontario Cohort Study.
52. ACCHO, Criminals and Victims.
53. Commission on Systemic Racism, Report of the Commission on Systemic Racism in the Ontario Criminal Justice System (Toronto: Queen's Printer for Ontario, 1995).
54. An examination of Toronto Star coverage (March 1990-July 2010) found that 64% (134/208) of news stories on criminal HIV non-disclosure cases focused on cases involving Black male defendants. E. Mykhalovskiy, unpublished data.
55. Mykhalovskiy et al., HIV Non-disclosure and the Criminal Law.
56. I. Grant, "The Prosecution of HIV Non-disclosure in Canada: Time to Rethink Cuerrier", McGill Journal of Law and Health 5, 1(2011):7-59.
57. Burris and Cameron, "The Case against Criminalization"