Canada: Critics Pan Proposed AIDS Law

Last Tuesday, Larry Baxter, chair of the Nova Scotia Advisory Commission on AIDS, told the legislature's law amendments committee he is worried that proposed health-protection legislation could force HIV patients to give up their privacy and take unwanted treatments. Baxter said the law, which was introduced in the fall but not passed, does not adequately protect the legal rights of HIV and other marginalized patients, and he fears that officials may overreact and class HIV/AIDS with more easily spread communicable diseases like SARS, smallpox, and West Nile virus.

The Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union and the Nova Scotia Nurses Union (NSNU) called on the province to make sure health workers are protected if they become infected while treating patients. The unions want full wages and benefits paid to workers who become infected during a public health emergency. Janet Hazelton, NSNU president, said compensation may even have to be extended to include household expenses in some cases.

Under the revamped legislation to be debated this spring, the minister will have the power to order voluntary immunization programs, set up isolation or quarantine facilities, control supplies of vaccines and medicines, and take other measures to stem the spread of disease. Further, it provides authority to seize drugs and medical supplies from wholesalers, district health authorities, and drug stores; to take over property; to detain people with a communicable disease; and to enter homes without a warrant during an emergency.

Back to other news for April 19, 2004