Publication Language: English

Letter from the legal community to Ontario Premier and Attorney General re: Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act

Today, on the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, sex workers and their allies will send a strong message to Canada’s provincial leaders: Reject the federal government’s toxic new law governing sex work, and do not enforce the law while its constitutionality remains in question. 190 legal experts in Canada have signed a … Read more

R. v. W.: HIV non-disclosure back at the Supreme Court — but with a twist

On December 8, 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada heard R. v. W., an HIV non-disclosure case in which the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (HALCO) and COCQ-SIDA (the provincial network of HIV organizations in Quebec) intervened. In this case, a man living with HIV was appealing his conviction … Read more

Media Advisory: At Queen’s Park, sex workers and allies demand action from provincial leaders

On December 17, the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, sex workers and their allies will be calling on Canada’s provincial leaders to take action. Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC), Maggie’s — Toronto Sex Workers’ Action Project, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, COUNTERfit Women’s Harm Reduction Program (South Riverdale Community Health Centre), and … Read more

Time for transparency on the TPP

For the last five years, Canada and 11 other countries have been secretly negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), often described as “NAFTA on steroids.” Among many other concerns, health groups have been sounding the alarm that access to affordable medicines for millions of people in the negotiating countries could be one of those things traded … Read more

In Conversation with … Ron Rosenes

Ron Rosenes is a member of the Legal Network’s Advocates Circle and a past Vice Chair of the Canadian Treatment Action Council who has been working on HIV-related issues for more than twenty-five years. He was recently awarded the Order of Canada for his community work. How have your background and lived experience influenced your … Read more

Letter to TPP Ministers and Heads of Delegation re: transparency

“Ever since talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) began over five years ago, there have been broad public calls on leaders to make negotiations more transparent and open to the public. In statements, in letters, and in face-to-face meetings with trade representatives, we have urged the adoption of concrete practices that would better enable the kind of open … Read more

Video: Putting human rights into human hands in Russian-speaking countries

Russia has the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemic, driven by injection-drug use, and fuelled by discrimination, criminalization and horrific human rights abuses. This video — produced by the Levi Strauss Foundation’s HIV Advocates program — lays out the work of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network in Russia and other Russian-speaking countries. Our goal, as Senior Policy … Read more

Video: Empowering through networks in Russian-speaking countries

How does a researcher at the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network in Toronto defend the human rights of a person who uses drugs in Russia? Through indispensable partner organizations and the initiative of people who use drugs empowered to stand up for their own rights. In this video produced by the Open Society Foundations, Senior Policy … Read more