Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization
Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization (CCRHC)
Coalition canadienne pour réformer la criminalisation du VIH (CCRCV)

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AS WE MARK CANADA’S THIRD ANNUAL HIV IS NOT A CRIME AWARENESS DAY,
PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV HOPE THAT CHANGE IS ON THE HORIZON

As people living with HIV in Canada wait for much-needed law reform,
they live under the constant threat of persecution for their health condition

Thursday, February 26, 2026 – Ottawa, ON – On Saturday, February 28, we will observe international HIV is Not a Crime (HINAC) Awareness Day. Today and every day, the Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization (CCRHC) recognizes the brave advocacy of people living with HIV worldwide who speak out in the face of persecution, including through prosecution.

HINAC Day, launched in the United States in 2022 through the joint efforts of the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and the SERO Project, is designed to bring people together to stand in unity against the harms and violence of the criminalization of people living with HIV. HINAC Day has been acknowledged in Canada since 2024.

In this country, people living with HIV can be charged with aggravated sexual assault, listed on the sex offender registry, and spend years in prison for allegedly not telling their sexual partner of their HIV status in certain circumstances. This includes instances where there was little to no possibility of transmission, no intent to transmit, and no actual transmission.

More than 220 people in Canada have been prosecuted for alleged HIV non-disclosure since 1989, with Black men vastly overcharged, and Indigenous people (including women) and gay men facing greater risk of prosecution. In addition to potential imprisonment, charges under these laws can also result in barriers to housing and employment, social exclusion, increased risks of violence and abuse, and psychological harms.

Until the law is changed, everyone in Canada who is living with HIV is forced to live in fear of criminalization, whether they are ever prosecuted or not. Criminalization reinforces and codifies the ongoing stigma experienced every day by people living with HIV in Canada.

We honour survivors of HIV criminalization through the presentation of the CCRHC’s HIV is Not a Crime Leadership Award, which recognizes members who are living with HIV and whose advocacy through their lived experience has advanced the work of the CCRHC, including advocacy for law reform. The award is made possible by a generous grant from the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.

We are thrilled to name Chris Tooriram as the recipient of this year’s CCRHC’s HIV is Not a Crime Leadership Award.

Chris is an incredible advocate who speaks up and speaks out about injustices involving HIV. He joined the CCRHC in December 2024, shortly after telling politicians on Parliament Hill about his lived experience with HIV criminalization in Canada. In early 2025, Chris also shared his experience of HIV criminalization in a high-profile CBC news series that looked at the real-world impacts of Canada’s laws criminalizing people living with HIV.

After being diagnosed with HIV in 2001, Chris had quickly started treatment and became undetectable within three months, a status that he has been able to maintain through to today. Despite this, Chris was charged later that year with aggravated sexual assault for kissing someone without disclosing his status. Although ultimately withdrawn, these charges are life-altering and were filed despite no possibility of HIV transmission occurring.

Chris’ work to shed light on the harms caused by HIV criminalization is making a real difference, and the CCRHC is committed to ensuring these harms are no longer experienced by anyone. And, after years of government inaction, there is an expectation that change may finally come.

“We feel hopeful right now that law reform may be on the horizon,” says Muluba Habanyama, head of the CCRHC. “2025 was an election year in Canada and the new government was immediately confronted with the cascading fallout from political events in the world. Now, a year later, we are seeing increased clarity on how the Government of Canada will work to make change. Our standing as a world leader in health and human rights would certainly be boosted by finally ending the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure in this country.”

The Government of Canada would be able to move relatively quickly to reform the laws that criminalize people living with HIV in Canada because much of the work has already been done. Canada held national consultations on its HIV criminalization laws in 2022 and 2023, which followed the release of the CCRHC’s 2022 Community Consensus Statement, to date signed by more than 100 expert organizations in Canada. The Consensus Statement calls for:

  1. Removing non-disclosure, exposure, or transmission of HIV or other STBBIs from the reach of sexual assault laws, including designation as a sex offender.
  2. Enacting reforms to ensure that any other provisions in the Criminal Code are not used to further stigmatize and discriminate against people living with HIV and STBBIs. Prosecution under any offence in the Criminal Code should be limited to cases of actual, intentional transmission.
  3. Ending the deportation of non-citizens following conviction.
  4. Reviewing past convictions so that people living with HIV previously criminalized under these harmful and stigmatizing laws no longer have to live with the label of a sex offender and criminal.

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The Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization is a national coalition of people living with HIV, community organizations, lawyers, researchers, and others formed in October 2016. More information can be found here.

Media contact:

Dylan DeMarsh
d.dmarsh@hivlegalnetwork.ca

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