Planification en cas de maladie : renseignements juridiques à l’intention des personnes vivant avec le VIH en Ontario

The African and Caribbean Council on HIV /AIDS in Ontario (ACCHO) and the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (HALCO) are very pleased to announce a new public legal education resource for people in Ontario:

• Planning for illness: legal information for people living with HIV in Ontario 

• Planification en cas de maladie : renseignements juridiques à l’intention des personnes vivant avec le VIH en Ontario 

Please see the full ACCHO & HALCO Announcement in English and French (en français) for more information.

Topics in the booklet include:  powers of attorney, wills, planning for your children, your home, benefits, resources, services and more.

Print copies may be ordered from CATIE:  416-203-7122 or toll-free 1-800-263-1638, www.catie.ca

If you are living with HIV in Ontario and you have legal questions, please contact us for free legal advice.

As a beneficiary, we will be providing a number of volunteers to assist with the Run on Saturday June 30, 2012.

Volunteers are needed from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on race day (June 30, 2012). Responsibilities may include being a run marshall, assisting with registration, race check in and water stations, or helping out at the after party. All volunteers will receive a fabulous Pride Run t-shirt, and there will be prizes for the best costumes!

If you are interested in volunteering for the event, please contact Bill Merryweather, our Director of Administration, at 416-340-7790, ext. 42 or by e-mail at merryww@lao.on.ca

For more information about the Pride and Remembrance Association, please check out their website: www.priderun.org

For more information about HALCO’s having been selected as a Pride Run beneficiary, please see our HALCO news Winter 2012 edition.

The workshops are free and everyone is welcome, but space is limited so Registration is required.

Our workshops are from 1:30 to 4:00 p.m. in person in our HALCO Boardroom:

• Criminalization of HIV Non-Disclosure on Wednesday May 2, 2012
• HIV and Privacy Law on Thursday May 10
  
• Family Sponsorship: HIV and Canada’s Immigration Law on Tuesday May 15
• *En français – Parrainer votre famille: le VIH et la loi canadienne en matière d’immigration, mercredi 6 juin – 13 h 30 à 16 h
• Introduction to Family Law and Family Law Legal Services on Thursday May 31
• Your Rights as a Tenant on Tuesday June 12

REGISTRATION:  

Please include your name, your contact information, your organization (if any), and the workshop(s) that you would like to attend:

• E-Mail to talklaw@halco.org
• Phone 416-340-7790 / 1-888-705-8889  or  FAX to 416-340-7248

For more information, please see our workshop poster:
www.halco.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/HALCO_Workshop_Series_2012-MAY-JUNE.pdf

If you would like more information about our workshops, please visit our Public Legal Education section:  www.halco.org/our-services/public-legal-education

For more information, you can click on the image below to visit the Positive Spaces Healthy Places website at http://pshp.ca/ or you can call the study organizers at telephone 1-866-301-2548 or 416-642-0181.

The Positive Spaces Healthy Places housing study is winding down to a close after over 5 years of collecting data. The study organizers want to make sure all voices have been heard to ensure the most accurate estimates of the associations between housing stability, health and health related quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS.

The Kreppner Awards were established by the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (HALCO) in 2010 to honour the late James Kreppner.

Nominations for the 2012 Kreppner Awards will be accepted until June 30, 2012.

The awards were created to recognize unparalleled achievement in advocating on behalf of or bettering the lives of people living with HIV or co-infected with HIV and Hepatitis C. Up to two awards may be given every year.  One award may be given in recognition of outstanding accomplishment in the public domain.  The other may be given in recognition of outstanding accomplishment that would otherwise be unheralded or would be considered as more in the private domain – i.e. an “unsung hero.”

For more information, please see the  2012 Kreppner Awards – Call for Nominations notice.

James Kreppner was an original member of the HALCO Board of Directors and continued his dedicated service to HALCO until he passed away in 2009. For more about James, please see our HALCO news Fall 2009 newsletter (pages 2 and 13).

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and the HIV & AIDS Clinic Ontario (HALCO) welcome the March 26th Ontario Court of Appeal landmark decision on the constitutionality of Canada’s sex work laws, but caution that sex workers who work on the street remain unable to negotiate safer sex and are thus still extremely vulnerable to harm.

This decision addresses the laws concerning “common bawdy houses” that prohibits indoor sex work, “living on the avails” of prostitution, and the prohibition of communicating in public for the purposes of sex work.

For more information about the decision, please see today’s Statement by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and HALCO, which is available in English and French:

• English www.halco.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/2012Mar27_Stmt_SexWorkDecision-ENG.pdf
• Frenchwww.halco.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/2012Mar27_Stmt_SexWorkDecision-FRA.pdf

For more information on how Canada’s criminal laws regarding prostitution affect the health and the human rights of sex workers, see the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network’s booklet Sex, work, rights: Changing Canada’s criminal laws to protect sex workers’ health and human rights, available for download at www.aidslaw.ca/publications/publicationsdocEN.php?ref=197

Tuesday April 3, 2012    
7:30 – 10:30 pm
at Factory Girl Restaurant & Bar
193 Danforth Avenue, Toronto (just east of Broadview Ave./Broadview subway station)

HALCO is hosting a night of games at Factory Girl Restaurant & Bar.  Whether you’re into loud and interactive games, or prefer a quiet strategic game, this FUNdraiser has got you covered! Featuring prizes and much more!

TICKETS
$15 in Advance (by March 30) or $20 at the Door
-purchase tickets on-line:
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3049953493
-or purchase tickets directly at HALCO by contacting Rhonda Major majorr@lao.on.ca or 416-340-7790 extension 32.

Space is limited. Buy your tickets to guarantee your spot!

All proceeds from this event will go directly to providing HALCO services.

Proceeds from the 2012 Run will support our full-time articling (law) student program, allowing us to provide additional support to our community.

For more information, including the Pride & Remembrance Run Association announcement, please see page 3 of our HALCO news Winter 2012 edition.

• HALCO is beneficiary of 2012 Pride & Remembrance Run
• Supreme Court “Criminalization of HIV” Appeals
• Ontario Court of Appeal Privacy Law decision
• Trillium Drug Program and Private Insurance
• Serious Refugee Law Changes proposed
• Special Diet Allowance Update, and
• more!

You can read our HALCO news Winter 2012 on-line.  If you would like a print or alternate format of our newsletter, please contact us.

This case, which was heard by the Supreme Court on January 18, 2012, originated with a challenge to the criminal law provisions relating to sex work. However, the Supreme Court matter is not about the substance of the challenge to the criminal law, but is about the legal test for “public interest standing.” The Supreme Court will decide the test to determine when someone (including organizations like HALCO) can get public interest standing to raise issues before the courts.

The Supreme Court’s decision will have very significant implications for HALCO and for many other organizations. Our coalition argued for a more liberal approach to public interest standing than the current legal test, and our factum was filed in early January 2012.

Unfortunately, a number of interveners, including our coalition, were not given permission to present oral submissions.  The Supreme Court’s decision is pending. We offer our sincere thanks to Michael Feder, McCarthy Tétrault (Vancouver), who represented us pro bono.

The Intervener Factum is available on our website: www.halco.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Supreme_Court_Intervener_Factum-CriminalCodeSexWork-2012Mar.pdf