Out In Law Event - After Cuerrier: HIV & The Law

In 1998, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that HIV-positive people

have a duty to disclose their HIV status before having sex where there

is a "significant risk of serious bodily harm." How has that played

out in subsequent cases? How has our changing understanding of HIV

affected judicial decisions? With two new HIV nondisclosure cases (R v

Mabior and R v DC) heading to the Supreme Court of Canada soon, what

issues ought the court consider?

 

Join guest speaker Cécile Kazatchkine of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal

Network in a discussion of these issues. Cécile joined CHALN as a

policy analyst in September 2009 and mostly worked on the issue of the

criminalization of HIV non-disclosure. Her work includes the

development of an international resource kit for defence lawyers as

well as the preparation of interventions before Canadian Courts in

cases of alleged non-disclosure. Cécile also represents the Legal

Network at the Ontario Working Group on Criminal law and HIV Exposure,

a group calling for the development of prosecutorial guidelines in

Ontario. Called to the Paris Bar in 2007, Cécile has worked as a

lawyer in private law firms in France. Prior to that, she interned the

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Geneva and the

Harm Reduction Program of the Open Society Institute in Budapest.

For more information, please contact marcus.mccann@utoronto.ca