On Thursday, November 5th, Professor Alexander McClelland will be speaking about the resistance to the ongoing criminalization of communicable disease across Canada at the Community Based Research Centre Summit (2020).
There have been many comparisons between historical and ongoing responses to the HIV epidemic and current responses to COVID-19. Based on academic and activist projects examining the intersections of police, the criminal justice system, and public health institutions, this talk will trace the ways in which communicable diseases, namely HIV and COVID-19, have been policed and criminalized in Canada, and how communities have collectively responded.
Canada is a leading country in the world for criminalizing people living with HIV, a practice which targets many queer men, as well as Black, Indigenous and people of colour. This punitive legacy has laid the groundwork for the intensified policing of public and private life under new COVID-19 regulations, including snitch-lines and forms of surveillance. Such criminalization of COVID-19 has created even greater insecurity and uncertainty for queers, Black, Indigenous and people of colour, people living with HIV, people who sell and who use drugs, and people who sell sex. Finally, this talk will look to harm reduction, racial justice organizing, and mutual aid, to outline a path forward for collective action and community care.
For more information regarding the Summit, please click here.