Tag: Criminalization

Silence is not neutral: Canada’s leadership has stalled on HIV criminalization reform and communities are paying the price

November 25, 2025 • By Chad Clarke

It has been nearly a decade since Canada first acknowledged that the criminalization of people living with HIV was harmful, outdated and rooted in stigma rather than science. In 2015, when a new government took power at the federal level, there was hope. Momentum. A promise of modernizing the law, of ending the era of prosecuting people living with HIV based on fear instead of facts. I know, because I was there. As a member of the Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization, I have spent years in meeting rooms, Zoom calls, consultations and roundtables. We worked with Ministers of...

HIV criminalization and the Canadian government’s failed law reform project: Another. Incredible. Disappointment. Surprise!

April 2, 2025 • By Chad Clarke with contributions from Colin Johnson

The Government of Canada has broken its promise to reform the laws that criminalize people living with HIV. In November 2024, the Federal Justice Minister’s office informed the Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization (CCRHC) that the federal government’s long-promised initiative addressing the “overcriminalization” (their term) of HIV was not going to move forward. This announcement came after almost a decade of difficult work on the part of the HIV community. Blood, sweat and tears and some lives were lost while we worked on developing a workable consensus statement that would satisfy a majority of Parliament. The government squandered time,...

HIV law reform: Chad Clarke and Colin Johnson discuss HIV decriminalization

July 2, 2024 • By Chad Clarke and Colin Johnson

Anger! Disappointment! Betrayal! Equivocation! Disquietude! These are the emotions that overwhelm Chad Edward Clarke on any given day, yet he remains committed to his cause: to change the way that the Canadian justice system has dealt with HIV non-disclosure through criminalization. Chad was recently awarded the first HIV is Not A Crime Leadership Award by the Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization (CCHRC) and shares his story below with one of the coalition’s steering committee members, Colin Johnson. Colin Johnson: Chad, I know that you’ve told your story many times before, but it needs to be heard. Let’s start with...

Spotting and the Good Samaritan Act: Implications and considerations

August 12, 2022 • By Melissa Perri and Nat Kaminski

“Good Samaritan” laws aim to protect people who witness, act on or experience a substance-use-related overdose from being arrested or criminally charged. This type of legislation has been implemented across Canada and the United States as a response to the increase in fatal drug poisonings, but it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Spotting for people who use drugs: What, when and how

December 8, 2021 • By Melissa Perri and Nat Kaminski

With an increasingly poisoned drug supply and criminal laws that make the consumption of drugs more dangerous, people who use drugs rely on each other and their service providers to spot an overdose and get help as needed. But what if a person is using drugs on their own? This dilemma has become even more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic, as public health guidance has discouraged gatherings and promoted physical distancing.

Splitting and sharing at overdose prevention and supervised consumption sites: What we learned

July 29, 2021 • By Nick Pineau, Sandra Ka Hon Chu, Corey Ranger, Matthew Bonn and Natasha Touesnard

In 2020, Health Canada started to hold consultation meetings with key stakeholders to review federal regulations governing overdose prevention sites (OPS) and supervised consumption sites (SCS). While multiple recommendations and suggestions were brought forward, one that was repeatedly identified by people who use drugs and other stakeholders as being of top concern was the inability to split and share drugs within OPS/SCS settings.