By Amy Wah
On June 29, 2026, the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (HALCO) started a legal challenge against the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, along with the co-applicant J.B., under the federal Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter) section 15 equality protection. The CAF has an explicit policy to disqualify all persons living with HIV from being selected for aircrew training in the Royal Canadian Air Force under AMA Directive 100-01. Further, the CAF deems persons with HIV as being unable to meet the Common Enrolment Medical Standards (CEMS) and thereby bars applicants with HIV from being admitted to the Regular Force, the Primary Reserve, and other branches of the armed forces. J.B. served as an active-duty member in the Regular Force for 13 years from 2007 to 2020. In 2012, J.B. was diagnosed with HIV and continued to serve in the CAF for a further 8 years with the CAF’s full knowledge of his diagnosis, including a 9-month deployment in an active combat zone in Mali. In 2024, when J.B. attempted to rejoin the CAF in a reservist role, the CAF denied his application explicitly based on his HIV status, despite his exemplary prior service.
According to the Auditor General of Canada’s 2025 report “Recruiting for Canada’s Military,” as of June 30, 2024, 13% of occupations in the Canadian Armed Forces were at risk of not reaching authorized staffing levels. While applicant numbers increased every year between 2022 and 2025, only 1 in 13 were successfully recruited and CAF failed to make their recruitment goals with a shortfall of nearly 5000 recruits. Some of those rejections were because of HIV even where the person was fit, healthy and capable. While members diagnosed with HIV continue to serve successfully in the CAF, individuals already living with HIV face these direct or indirect barriers to entry. We have also heard from clients that they withdrew their applications after being told by CAF staff involved in recruitment that HIV would be a barrier to enrollment. Because of HIV stigma, it can be terrifying for someone to disclose that they are living with HIV, and the CAF should not ask individuals to disclose their HIV positive status only to reject them on that basis. We know that applicants and members living with HIV are capable, medically fit, and deployable, as JB was in his time of service.
HALCO and J.B. assert that CAF’s refusal to enroll people living with HIV is premised on outdated stereotypes about HIV treatment and health outcomes and violate section 15(1) of the Charter which guarantees that every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination. By failing to recognize the science surrounding treatment advancements which not only render HIV untransmissible but has made living with the virus a healthy life, the CAF discriminates against applicants living with HIV. The CAF should stand up to HIV stigma and see people living with HIV as the healthy, fit, skilled, and dedicated individuals that they are. The CAF can begin to address their recruitment and professional staffing shortages by modernizing their approach to HIV and medical fitness, as they have with other conditions such as asthma, ADHD, anxiety, and allergies which can also be well controlled on treatment. People living with HIV are skilled in all professions and some, like JB, are eager to serve their country in the CAF. They are willing and able and should not be refused. It’s time for the CAF to remove HIV as a barrier to recruitment, and we have asked the Court to order the CAF to do so.
You can read media coverage of our constitutional challenge against the CAF here:
Toronto Star, Friday August 14, 2026:
Press Reader: https://torontostarreplica.pressreader.com/article/281500758079508
CTV, Friday August 14, 2026: