Opinion Pieces

Guilty as charged? The Undetecable = Untransmittable campaign has enjoyed a lot of success  – more so in fact than any campaign I've witnessed in 20 years of advocacy work. The term #uequalsu has become ubiquitous, part of the HIV lexicon, Over 270 community partners have adopted the slogan as their own in 25 countries. The number grows daily.    This is remarkable. In an age where the response to HIV has been largely taken out of the community’s hands, instead becoming institutionali

People living with HIV in Canada have been charged with some of the most serious offences in the Criminal Code, even in cases of consensual sex where there was negligible or no risk of HIV transmission, no actual transmission and no intent to transmit. The Undetectable=Untransmittable (“U=U”) campaign is based on scientific research, including the ground-breaking PARTNER study, establishing that when a person living with HIV on treatment maintains an undetectable viral load for at least

View from a hotel window. "Regina might not be the most exciting city in Canada" says publisher Bob Leahy "but it played host to a solid conference that re-established CAS as a force to be reckoned with." The Canadian AIDS Society (CAS) went into last week’s national Forum for People Living with HIV needing a victory. It has had a history, after all, of meetings that left many frustrated, if not angry. As well, it is currently on what some would see as life support from the Public Health Ag

HIV-positive people have impaired respiratory health, even when they have viral suppression with antiretroviral therapy (ART), investigators from London report in HIV Medicine. Respiratory health was compared between HIV-positive and HIV-negative outpatients. Individuals with HIV had poorer respiratory health and were more likely to report breathlessness than HIV-negative participants, findings which remained unchanged when analysis focused on ART-treated HIV-positive people with an undetec

Day 42. Follow the Witches The recount failed to stop him, the Electoral College raised our hopes, but the darkness of his presidency continues to descend. What can we do with the ache of it, the anger, the grief and the fear? Follow the witches! Go to the ocean, the plain, the mountain, a place where you can watch the sun set into the longest night. Sing to it, cry to it, whisper to it, dance before it, ask it to return to help us through the darkening paths ahead. And then watch it rise tom

This article raised some eyebrows when it was first published in PositiveLite.com in May 2014. It quickly racked up the numbers to become one of our most read articles ever. It’s rare for owners of controversial hookup sites that facilitate condomless sex to emerge from the shadows.  But the man behind BarebackRT.com approached us to talk about sexual health, condomless sex and disclosure issues. This he did with great candour. Although we only talked on the phone – he is from Tucson, Ar

“Let’s celebrate, honor and appreciate that they still have years to go and it is all our job to help them become the best they can be” The Long term Survivors Day website  Question: Why do we need a Long Term Survivors Day? Answer: To acknowledge people who are arguably the core of our community but who often feel left out. And yes, I’m one of them. It seems odd for me, a white privileged gay male, to express feelings of disadvantage. But increasingly it’s true. Maybe it’s a h

Most of the time, HIV stigma is pretty easy to spot. It comes across in black and white on dating app profiles when guys write things like “clean and DDF (drug and disease free).” It’s evident in the ever-growing number of people living with HIV who have been prosecuted for not disclosing their HIV status prior to specific sexual encounters, even though the risk of HIV transmission during those encounters was extremely low (if not nonexistent). But I want to talk about a different kind o

Opportunity knocks Next week sees sixty people living with HIV from across Canada gather in Regina, Saskatchewan. It’s an annual event, usually a precursor to the CAS Annual General Meeting held immediately following it. There will be no such double-barreled affair this year, Money is tight and PHAC is no longer funding AGMs so the AGM will be held in a different (online) format at a later date.  It’s unusual for financial considerations to intrude so glaringly, but as previously report

The best way to win a battle is to avoid what is being fought for. It sounds like a simple statement but has an immense impact. This is what has made me the person I am today: strong, courageous and optimistic. Many people have asked me why I always post HIV related issues and disclose my status publicly, I do it for a purpose. I know it is a very sensitive issue but the reason behind it is more significant than its sensitivity and that is why I talk about it like anything else, without fear.

HIV conferences are not for everyone, but they can be empowering, educational and a great way to interact with other people living with HIV. For those community members – people living with HIV – who would like to attend, though, it’s not easy. Simply put our attendance costs money – for travel and accommodation in particular. If you are not employed in the sector, and even if you are, the way to get there is usually to apply for a community scholarship which will fund your attendance

Fresh start In a widely circulated press release the Canadian Positive People Network, (CPPN), today attempted to put past troubles behind them.  “The current leadership team acknowledges that the CPPN is faced with many governance and operational priorities and considers this its opportunity to realize change to further strengthen the CPPN’s foundation” it says. Those challenges include the very public resignations last month of vice–chair Gord Asmus from Ontario, founding directo

I’m not the most patient of people and I’m also competitive – I’ve mastered being able to ‘win’ at anything, especially when I’m the only person involved. So when it comes to dating despite knowing something will happen unexpectedly and when the time is right I’m easily frustrated.  So whilst hungover over the bank holiday weekend I decided to download Tinder. Having been in a relationship until last August I’m late to the party with this one so I doubt much of what I have

Photo: © Dan Hall Moving in together is one of the milestone steps any couple takes. It’s in everyone’s ‘plan’ as being somewhere between saying “I love you” and getting hitched. It seems a very grown up thing to do. Having recently taken the step myself I thought I would share with you the five fears I think are common for everyone about to take the shared property plunge. 1. What will happen to my personal space? It’s a legitimate fear. Up until the point of moving in we

CTAC's expert guests, Dr. Lisa Barrett, Carrielynn Lund and Dr. Jordan Feld explore the current landscape of Hepatitis C treatment in Canada; a cure is available but there are significant treatment access barriers. For more information, visit the Canadian Treatment Access Council (CTAC), here.