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Breaking! Supreme Court of Canada Issues Decision on the Criminality of HIV Non-Disclosure

October 5th, 2012

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This morning, the Supreme Court of Canada issued two rulings on the criminalizability of individuals living with HIV if they do not disclose their HIV-positive status to a sexual partner before engaging with them, sexually.  The rulings are in response to a case in Manitoba, where a man was charged with nine counts of aggravated sexual assault based on his failure to disclose his HIV‑positive status to nine complainants (none of the complainants contracted HIV); and a case in Quebec, where a woman with HIV was charged with sexual assault and aggravated assault for failing to disclose her HIV-positve status to a partner.
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The Supreme Court of Canada has effectively ruled that laying such charges on an individual who is HIV-positive, with an undetectable viral load, and who made proper use of a condom, is unreasonable because the “realistic possibility of transmission of HIV is negated” in such a context.
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The Manitoba case ruling can be found here:
http://scc.lexum.org/en/2012/2012scc47/2012scc47.html

The Quebec case ruling can be found here:
http://scc.lexum.org/en/2012/2012scc48/2012scc48.html

The CBC’s report on the ruling an be found here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/10/05/supreme-court-hiv-ruling.html

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