HALCO Board member Eric Mykhalovskiy was delighted to present our 2015 Kreppner Award to David Hoe at our Annual General Meeting on October 15, 2015.
The award is named in honour of our great friend James Kreppner. James, who died in 2009, was a great and true friend to HALCO and to those living with HIV or Hepatitis C. An original member of HALCO’s board, James continued serving until his death. James was courageous and strong in his belief that the wrongs suffered by people living with HIV and Hepatitis C were not to be tolerated. Despite the great cost to his health, he fought hard for compensation and justice for persons infected through the blood supply and for persons denied organ transplants. James was a local, national and international leader, and no matter how hard he worked or how troubled his own health, he was always a willing ear, a source of advice, and a helping hand to those who needed him. For more about James, please see our HALCO news Fall 2009 newsletter.
This year’s Kreppner Award recipient, David Hoe, would have made James very proud. Like James, David is highly troubled by the way in which the criminal law in Canada is being applied to HIV non-disclosure. And like James, David has done his best to bring about fairness and justice.
David, who has been living with HIV since 1984, has for three decades helped lead the fight against HIV/AIDS locally, provincially, and nationally. He was the founding executive director of the AIDS Committee of Ottawa, and served on the steering committee of Opening Doors, a provincial initiative that helps engage social workers and counsellors in caring for people with HIV.
An outspoken critic of the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure, David has been interviewed by the media, spoken at public forums and advocated with Ottawa Public Health on this issue. Nationally, David worked as a senior policy advisor on HIV/AIDS with the federal government, and was a driving force behind ‘Leading Together’, the blueprint for Canada-wide action on HIV/AIDS.
David served as co-chair of Ontario’s Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS, and led the development of Ontario’s Strategy to Address HIV/AIDS to 2008. As chair of the board of the Ontario HIV Treatment Network, he led the shift to impact-focussed research to ensure that research makes a real difference to the lives of people with HIV and their communities.
He has championed Poz Prevention as one alternative to criminalization in his work with Toronto People with AIDS Foundation and as a strategic advisor with the Gay Men’s Sexual Health Alliance. He also served as an advisor to the Ontario Organizational Development Program. David’s values and strategic thinking have influenced every
part of Ontario’s response to HIV.
We are extremely fortunate to have David involved in the HIV movement and were honoured to present him with our 2015 Kreppner Award.