Category: Opinions | Page 9

Travail du sexe des hommes et des personnes trans : décriminaliser et défaire les préjugés

February 7, 2017 • By Jonathan Bacon

Je me vois souvent contraint de commencer mes billets sur le travail du sexe en parlant du Grand Prix de F1 de Montréal. Chaque année, dans la foulée du Grand Prix – et particulièrement l’année dernière, en juin – les médias se font un plaisir, sinon un devoir, de prendre d’assaut ce qu’ils perçoivent comme une violente augmentation de l’exploitation sexuelle et de la traite des femmes dans le cadre de ces évènements sportifs. Cette médiatisation s’inscrit dans une approche abolitionniste aux effets néfastes, ceux-ci incluant une surveillance accrue, des arrestations plus fréquentes et des risques de déportation plus élevés...

Spreading the good news about HIV treatment and prevention

December 1, 2016 • By Laurie Edmiston

Good news? On this World AIDS Day, 2016, there is a lot to report. The science of treatment and prevention has much to inspire agencies delivering needed services to people living with, and at risk of, HIV. We know that there are significant health benefits for people with HIV to begin treatment as soon as possible after diagnosis. Early treatment with good adherence in order to maintain an undetectable viral load allows an HIV-positive person to live a long and healthy life. A ground-breaking study called START (Strategic Timing of Antiretroviral Treatment) found that immediate treatment upon an HIV diagnosis...

The Face of Our Story

November 15, 2016 • By Signe Dewar and Tom Barnard

The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, in partnership with the Toronto Community Hep C Program (TCHCP), invited people with lived experience of hepatitis C to take part in an art project called The Face of Our Story. In that project, clay tiles depicting stories of lived experience would be displayed at the museum on World Hepatitis Day, July 28, 2016. This is the story of two artists who participated in the event.

More obvious and sinister villains are responsible for the number of drug overdose deaths in Vancouver Island

October 25, 2016 • By Shane Calder

As of August 31st, 2016, the number of drug overdose deaths in the province of B.C. sat at 488, with the highest rate of fatal drug overdose occurring on Vancouver Island, where there has been a 135 per cent increase in fatal drug overdoses since August 31st, 2015 (compared to a 43.5 per cent increase provincially during the same time period). Health authorities, law enforcement, public health officers and politicians alike have stood shoulder to shoulder blaming fentanyl as the culprit; however I suggest that more obvious and sinister villains are responsible.

From CWGHR to realize: A Coming of Age Story

October 11, 2016 • By Tammy C. Yates

Picture it … Quebec City, 1998, thirty people with diverse interests, identities and professions meet to discuss the idea of HIV and rehabilitation for the first time. All were curious, but unsure of the connection between rehabilitation and HIV prevention, treatment, care and support and the role they could play. There the Canadian Working Group on HIV and Rehabilitation (CWGHR) was born! As people were no longer expecting to die of AIDS, this group of pioneers could see that rehabilitation – in a broad sense – was key to enabling people living with HIV to not only survive, but also thrive.

The Canadian Consensus Statement. Sign it. Use it. I have and here’s why.

September 13, 2016 • By Glenn Betteridge

Many of you may have noticed the ebb and flow of the community-based HIV movement, influenced by medical and scientific breakthroughs, funder priorities, community activism and larger political, social and economic forces. Throughout my 20-plus years in HIV community-based work and volunteering, I have tried to ground myself in a few bedrocks as a way of anchoring my work. The essential connection between health and human rights. The need for policies, programs and services grounded in evidence and lived experience. Recognition of the central role played by the social determinants of health. And a commitment to social justice and taking...