Québec: an Outbreak of HIV/AIDS-Related Stigma and Discrimination
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CANADIAN NEWS This section provides brief reports of developments in legislation, policy, and advocacy related to HIV/AIDS in Canada. (Cases before the courts or human rights tribunals in Canada are covered in the section on HIV in the Courts – Canada.) The coverage is based on information provided by Canadian correspon- dents or obtained through scans of Canadian media. Regular correspondents are listed on page 2; information about occasional correspondents is provided with their contribution. Address correspondence to David Garmaise, the editor of Canadian News, at [email protected]. Québec: An outbreak of HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination In the space of a few weeks in January 2004, actions by three different applicants would be automatically institutions in Québec combined to threaten the human rights of excluded, but that they would be people living with HIV/AIDS, raise the spectre of mandatory HIV test- required to explain how they got ing, and create unnecessary public fears about the spread of HIV infected. If they were infected as a infection. In response to what they called “the worst weeks in recent result of homosexual activity, the history for people living with HIV/AIDS in Québec,” the Canadian Grand Séminaire said, they would HIV/AIDS Legal Network and COCQ-Sida (the Québec coalition of have to convince the administration community-based organizations fighting AIDS) called for a province- that they were serious about their reli- wide campaign against HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination.1 gious vocation.3 Marcel Demers, the A victory was achieved when a Montréal catholic seminary rector of the Grand Séminaire, said announced that it had backed down from its initial proposal to that homosexual applicants would not mandatorily test all applicants for priesthood for HIV, but much more be automatically refused, but that is needed to fight the rapid outbreak of mandatory-testing proposals. their chances of being accepted were minimal.4 The three institutions involved were seminary, announced that as of Then, the Grand Séminaire the Grand Séminaire de Montréal, the September 2004, all applicants for the claimed that homosexuality had noth- Ste-Justine Children’s Hospital, and priesthood would be required to ing to do with it. At a news confer- the City of Montréal. undergo HIV testing.2 ence on 12 January, the Archbishop of Initially, the Grand Séminaire the Diocese of Montréal, Cardinal Grand Séminaire linked the HIV testing policy with Jean-Claude Turcotte, said that On 10 January 2004, the Grand homosexuality. It said that the new “homosexuality is not a criterion.” Séminaire de Montréal, a Catholic policy did not mean that HIV-positive The issue, he said, was the “health of VOLUME 9, NUMBER 1, APRIL 2004 15 CANADIAN NEWS the candidates” and their “[physical] check the person’s state of health. An HIV is not a barrier to fulfilling the capacity to fulfil their duties.” employer can discriminate on the duties of priesthood. HIV-positive peo- Cardinal Turcotte said that the priest- basis of a person’s handicap if it pre- ple can and do lead long, healthy lives. hood was “a lifelong project” and that vents the person from carrying out the It is often not their HIV-positive status, but society’s discrimination that makes “AIDS is a serious illness that can cut job, she said, but there is nothing it impossible for them to make a full short the life of a person.”5 inherent in HIV that prevents a person contribution – which is exactly why Cardinal Turcotte said that the from saying mass or carrying out they continue to need protection 9 Grand Séminaire was not the only other priestly duties. against the types of discrimination Catholic seminary to require HIV test- On the same day, the Legal non-voluntary HIV testing opens the ing. He said that HIV testing was Network and COCQ-Sida wrote to the door to, and why it is so important for mandatory at seminaries in Edmonton Québec Human Rights Commission the Commission to launch an investiga- and Vancouver, in many US states, strongly urging the Commission to tion. 6 10 and in Africa. launch an investigation. In that letter, The decision by the Grand Séminaire the two organizations said that “the and the public statements by Cardinal Reaction decision by the Grand Séminaire de Turcotte perpetuate stigma and misin- The Grand Séminaire policy was Montréal to ask applicants for priest- formation about HIV and people with denounced by numerous gay and hood to submit to an HIV test can HIV. All Quebeckers living with HIV HIV/AIDS organizations. A represen- have a negative impact on Québec have received a slap in the face from an tative of the Association gay anonyme society, by promoting discrimination institution that should practice what it pour prêtres exclusivement (AGAPE), against all people ... living with should preach: respect and inclusion. a group of gay Catholic priests that HIV/AIDS.” The letter went on to say: The decision and the public statements works within the church, character- have been widely reported in the media Submitting applicants to an HIV test – in fact, no other story on HIV has ized the policy as “excessive” and said cannot be justified.... [U]nder Canadian received as much coverage in the that if he were planning to enter the law, no employer has the right to media in recent history. The message Grand Séminaire today, he would impose mandatory pre-employment that people risk taking from it is that it have to think twice about it. Gilles HIV testing, and it is also against the is OK to exclude people with HIV Marchildon, Executive Director of human rights laws of all provinces to because they are incapable of fully par- Égale Canada, a gay rights organiza- demand such information because to ticipating in the activities of life. We tion, said that the policy would do so amounts to discrimination based “further stigmatize people living with on disability. The human rights acts HIV/AIDS by making them unwel- also do not in any way provide an come within the church.” Robert exemption to the Catholic Church that The decision by the Grand would allow it to demand pre-employ- Rousseau, of Séro Zéro, an AIDS ment HIV testing of potential employ- Séminaire and the public service organization, said that the ees. Under article 20 of the Québec statements by Cardinal policy sends a dangerous message of Charter of [Human] Rights and 7 exclusion. Freedoms a distinction or exclusion Turcotte perpetuate stigma On 13 January, the Canadian might not be discriminatory if it is and misinformation about HIV/AIDS Legal Network and based on a “qualification required for COCQ-Sida wrote to Cardinal an employment” or is “justified by the HIV and people with HIV. Turcotte to protest the new policy.8 religious nature of a non-profit institu- On 14 January, the Québec Human tion.” But clearly being HIV-negative is Rights Commission said that it would not a necessary ... requirement to be a are concerned that we will see an examine whether it should launch an priest, and the archdiocese has a duty, increase in discriminatory practices like all other employers, to accommo- investigation into the matter. against people with HIV if the date any employee with a disability (be Commission spokesperson Ginette Commission does not launch an it HIV or something else). And there is investigation. l’Heureux said that the church may be nothing in the “religious nature” of the contravening the Québec Charter of Church that would provide any justifi- The Human Rights Commission Human Rights and Freedoms if the cation or requirement to only hire HIV- agreed to consider the request to purpose of asking for the test is to negative priests. launch an investigation. 16 CANADIAN HIV/AIDS POLICY & LAW REVIEW CANADIAN NEWS On 15 January, the Legal Network lished her name.13 that the real issue in this case is that and COCQ-Sida issued a news release Dr Lucie Poitras, Director of “after 1996, there was no proper fol- reiterating the points raised in the let- Professional Services at the hospital, low-up in the institution.” He also ter to the Human Rights Commission. said that the risk of HIV transmission noted that the Québec College of “The consequences of HIV antibody to the patients during surgery was testing continue to be different from “extremely weak ... almost non-exis- many other medical tests,” said Lise tent.” Khiem Dao, the hospital’s Deep public fears particular Pinault, Executive Director of COCQ- Executive Director, said that the hos- Sida. “No doubt, there are significant pital was nevertheless recommending to HIV and AIDS should not benefits to people who undergo volun- that the patients be tested because drive public policy. tarily HIV testing. They can access “children’s safety takes priority over treatment if they are HIV positive, and all other considerations.”14 take steps to prevent HIV transmis- Dr Poitras said that the surgeon sion. However, if the HIV test is not informed her immediate supervisor in Physicians was working on a disclo- entirely voluntary and undertaken 1991 that she was HIV-positive, and sure policy for doctors with conta- with appropriate counselling, it can be that a committee was formed to deter- gious illnesses.19 used to unjustly discriminate against mine “what kind of medical work [the In an editorial published on 27 people, to exclude them from full par- surgeon] could do.”15 However, the January, the Montréal Gazette argued ticipation in society, based on false hospital was unable to find any against mandatory testing of surgeons. notions about HIV and people with records of the committee’s delibera- [M]edical professionals are best suited 16 HIV.” Ralf Jürgens, Executive tions after 1996.