ae ;

‘APainful Awakening

Erika Richmond, The Ubyssey

VANCOUVER (CUP)—Police arrested
28-year-old Vincent Walkem at his work-
place, a downtown Toronto clothing
store, Aug. 30. Walkem, who is HIV-posi-
tive, has since been charged with
aggravated assault and accused of engag-
ing, or attempting to engage, in
unprotected sexual intercourse with at
least three women without revealing his
HIV-positive status.

According to health records released
to police, Walkem had known he was
HIV-positive for almost three years. His
name and photograph were released to
the media in the hopes that women who
had sexual contact with him would come
forward. So far, police have received sev-
eral such reports.

A young woman who tested HIV-pos-
itive during her relationship with Walkem
tipped off police. That young woman is
my best friend.

There is a widespread misconception
among university students that the risk of
HIV pertains to other, disenfranchised
demographics. Not so. A 2001 study done
by Health Canada shows that 44.5 percent
of new HIV cases in Canada involve
young women aged 15 to 29. The stories
of those who had alleged relationships
with Walkem are exclusively from that
demographic; my friend’s story is not as
rare as it may seem.

A year and a half after her diagnosis, I
felt that it was time to share my friend’s
story with other people our age, as a
warning and perhaps an inspiration.

A TYPICAL STORY?
My friend, who asked not to be named,
says she began a relationship with Walkem
in the summer of 2002. My friend and I
were both fresh out of high school that
summer. In September I went off to the
University of British Columbia, while she
stayed in Toronto to try her luck in the
acting, dancing, and restaurant-waiting
worlds. We were both on our own for the
first time, but while I enjoyed the comfort
of residence, she was learning to get by on
her own. Happily, she was also falling in
love for the first time. In those first
months we spent apart, my friend seemed
more content than she had ever been; the
thrill of the city without parents and
school was enough to make her walk on
air and enough to make me more than a
little jealous.

So, it was a painful awakening when
she called me to say that Walkem’s co-
worker had told her to get tested for HIV.
Neither of us wanted to believe she could
be at risk, but to be safe she went to get
tested. A family friend who is mere

in the HIV non-profit community went
with her to get the devastating results. At
19, she was HIV-positive.

The news confounded everyone who

knew her. The alleged relationship
between my friend and Walkem ended
with the news that they were both HIV-
positive. This past summer, a chance
encounter between my friend
Walkem’s new girlfriend rf
tact the police.

  

that in Crown vs.
lent-setting case,’ the
anada ruled that peo-
fail to disclose their
xing in unprotected
nvicted of aggravat-

 
 

 
 

status
interco

   
 
  

ed assa

ignificant risk of seri-

   
  

ous harm” efore the law should
intervene.
The failure to ose was character-

ized as fraud, an
intercourse was ~

erefore consent for

  
  
 

 

        
   
  
  
 
 
  
 
  
  

 

legally invalid. Furthermore, because the
HIV virus causes bodily harm, the act was
determined to be aggravated assault.

= CRIMINALIZATION

 
   
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
   
  

   
   
   
 
      
      
  

with HIV by portraying them as crimit

A 2002 paper from the Joint United
Nations Program on HIV/AIDS ques-

tioned the utility and sagacity of
criminalization. “In (using criminal law
for) deterring a person who knows he or
she is HIV-positive from engaging in risky
behaviours without disclosure, policy-
make must consider the impact that

  

       
    

to get tested in
element of effe

partners, ordering them not to have sex,
or forcing medical treatment, ate strong
enough measures to combat acts like
those alleged in Walkem’s case. Such legis-
lation could be backed op with fines, but
the ssa mal

   

health a including those compelling
people with HIV to disclose their status to.

  

 

at least 10 previous cases in Canada of
people with HIV knowingly withholding
information or misinforming their part-
ners in order to have unprotected sex.
The Supreme Court of Canada chose
criminal prosecution as a means to deter

possible public-health offenders, punish

se who knowingly spread HIV, and
innocents from infection. Because
: hand knowledge, I have been
mat public-health counseling

always effectively encour-

with Walkem in
told her that he

 
  
 

shops to youtl
message out t

   
  

Contrary to
Whitbread

nen are the
p, but per-
ceptions are slow to

“Forget stereo
“I was in a trustin

    

   
  

>

  
   
      
    
     
  
 
   
  
  
   
   
 
  
  
  
 
  
 
 
  
  
 
 
 

Even with AID;
daily, recent studies
ple under 24 are the

The perception that
e turned HIV into a
so may reinforce the
is not as dangerous as

aits trial for his alleged
t custody of his family.
tly participated in the
alk, with 87 of her clos-
friends.

the news helped her
dies started; she is

17/2000