Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly india<br />
November 10, <strong>20</strong>17 | Toronto 10<br />
Canada's first HIV-positive restaurant opens in Toronto<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Canadian</strong> Press<br />
TORONTO: While working<br />
as a sexual health educator in<br />
Calgary several years ago, artist<br />
and activist Mikiki would<br />
often gently correct clients<br />
who said they had never met<br />
a gay person. Actually, you<br />
probably have but just didn't<br />
know it, Mikiki would explain.<br />
Today, living and working<br />
in Toronto, Mikiki says<br />
similar conversations happen<br />
frequently about HIV.<br />
"When people say, 'I don't<br />
know anybody who's HIVpositive,'<br />
I'm like, 'If you live<br />
in Toronto, you actually do,'"<br />
says Mikiki.<br />
"You've totally met people<br />
who are living with HIV. Do<br />
they feel comfortable to come<br />
out to you about their HIV status?<br />
Probably not."<br />
Mikiki is one of 14 HIVpositive<br />
chefs who developed<br />
the menu and cooked the food<br />
at June's HIV+ Eatery, a popup<br />
restaurant organized by<br />
Casey House, a Toronto hospital<br />
for people living with HIV<br />
and AIDS.<br />
<strong>The</strong> restaurant is named<br />
after the late June Callwood,<br />
one of the hospital's founders,<br />
who was inspired to provide<br />
comfort and empathy to<br />
young men dying of AIDS after<br />
her <strong>20</strong>-year-old son Casey<br />
was killed by a drunk driver.<br />
June's is billed as Canada's<br />
first HIV-positive restaurant<br />
and was launched to help<br />
dispel outdated myths. <strong>The</strong><br />
idea came after a recent study<br />
found that half of <strong>Canadian</strong>s<br />
said they wouldn't knowingly<br />
eat or share food prepared by<br />
someone who is HIV-positive.<br />
Many incorrectly believed<br />
HIV could be transmitted<br />
through skin-to-skin touch,<br />
saliva, or by sharing glasses<br />
or cutlery.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> numbers are kind of<br />
staggering, but it wasn't overly<br />
surprising," says Joanne<br />
Simons, CEO of Casey House.<br />
"For the clients that Casey<br />
House serves, that stigma is<br />
very real on a very daily basis."<br />
At the restaurant, the<br />
chefs wear aprons emblazoned<br />
with myth-busting<br />
slogans like "Kiss the HIV+<br />
cook," and "I got HIV from<br />
pasta, said no one ever."<br />
Matt Basile, chef at Toronto's<br />
Fidel Gastro, came on<br />
board to train the cooks and<br />
help them develop the menu.<br />
<strong>The</strong> experience level in<br />
the kitchen ranges "from the<br />
good to the bad to the ugly,"<br />
says Guy Bethell, one of the<br />
chefs on the crew, who has<br />
been living with HIV for 30<br />
years. "I'm a soup and stew<br />
guy, I keep it pretty easy. But<br />
everybody had something to<br />
bring to the table, and Matt<br />
was able to pull threads from<br />
all of us."<br />
June's quickly sold out its<br />
two-night run and organizers<br />
hope to hold similar events in<br />
the future. Medical advancements<br />
related to HIV have<br />
changed dramatically in the<br />
last 30 years: once a terminal<br />
illness, it can now be treated<br />
with a combination of medications.<br />
But Simons says in<br />
many ways, public perception<br />
is stuck in the 1980s.<br />
"When it was a death sentence<br />
there was a lot of fear<br />
and a lot of misunderstanding<br />
about the disease," she says.<br />
"We really need to take the opportunity<br />
to make sure people<br />
are educated about HIV and<br />
what it means today."<br />
Shocking revelations in Canada's<br />
love triangle murder case<br />
Agencies<br />
TORONTO: A retired forensic<br />
officer has testified that<br />
two man accused of killing a<br />
Toronto woman whose body<br />
has not been found were<br />
discussing the purchase,<br />
installation and testing of a<br />
massive animal incinerator<br />
around the time of her disappearance.<br />
Jim Falconer,<br />
a former detective sergeant<br />
with the Ontario Provincial<br />
Police, says Dellen Millard<br />
and Mark Smich discussed<br />
the use of the incinerator in<br />
the weeks before and after<br />
Laura Babcock vanished in<br />
early July <strong>20</strong>12. <strong>The</strong> Crown alleges<br />
Millard, 32, of Toronto,<br />
and Smich, 30, of Oakville,<br />
Ont., killed Babcock because<br />
she was the odd woman out<br />
in a love triangle with Millard<br />
and his girlfriend.<br />
Prosecutors say Millard<br />
and Smich burned the<br />
23-year-old woman's remains<br />
in an incinerator that was<br />
later found on Millard's farm<br />
near Waterloo, Ont. Both men<br />
have pleaded not guilty to<br />
first-degree murder charges.<br />
Falconer has been methodically<br />
going through the massive<br />
trove of data, including<br />
text messages, photographs<br />
and videos, found on three<br />
computers seized at Millard's<br />
home.<br />
He told court that on June<br />
18, <strong>20</strong>12, Millard asked a man<br />
named "Shaner" to order an<br />
animal incinerator that could<br />
burn a 250-pound animal.<br />
"Cost on small 250 lb incinerator<br />
is 11390. Next model<br />
is 500 lb and sells for 13440.<br />
Tax and shipping extra," Shaner<br />
wrote to Millard.<br />
"Put an order in for the<br />
larger one. Use the red Visa,"<br />
Millard wrote.<br />
Shaner sent Millard a<br />
message with a photograph<br />
on July 5 when the incinerator<br />
was delivered. Photos and<br />
texts show Millard and Smich<br />
working on a trailer, which<br />
was later hooked up to a blue<br />
truck, court heard.<br />
On Wednesday, Falconer<br />
guided court through a number<br />
of text messages and photographs<br />
that showed Millard<br />
and Smich discussing burning<br />
bones in a homemade<br />
incinerator about a month<br />
before Babcock disappeared.<br />
Families of 2 brain dead persons<br />
want death certificates revoked<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Canadian</strong> Press<br />
TORONTO: Two Ontario<br />
court cases involving people<br />
deemed brain dead are raising<br />
questions about whether<br />
what constitutes death<br />
should be clearly spelled out<br />
under <strong>Canadian</strong> laws.<br />
<strong>The</strong> issue is at the crux<br />
of separate legal battles to<br />
keep 27-year-old Taquisha<br />
McKitty of Brampton, Ont.,<br />
and 25-year-old Shalom<br />
Ouanounou of Toronto on<br />
life support. Both cases involve<br />
religious objections to<br />
the concept of brain death.<br />
<strong>The</strong> lawyer representing<br />
both families argues the<br />
absence of a legal definition<br />
of death creates somewhat<br />
of a grey area, particularly<br />
when it comes to issues<br />
such as religious accommodation.<br />
Only Manitoba has legislation<br />
that explicitly defines<br />
death, which it says takes<br />
place "at the time at which<br />
irreversible cessation of all<br />
that person's brain function<br />
occurs." Most other provinces<br />
and territories allude<br />
to the matter in legislation<br />
surrounding organ donation,<br />
typically by saying<br />
death will be determined<br />
according to accepted<br />
medical practices, without<br />
specifying what those are.<br />
But some legal and medical<br />
experts say enshrining the<br />
definition of death in law<br />
wouldn't change much, nor<br />
would it necessarily prevent<br />
future court challenges.<br />
And imposing a rigid<br />
definition could create issues<br />
down the road, they<br />
say.<br />
"A lot of this stuff is not<br />
precisely defined for the<br />
simple reason that there<br />
are medical standards and<br />
medical expertise that in<br />
some cases evolve," said Dr.<br />
James Downar, who serves<br />
on the board of the <strong>Canadian</strong><br />
Critical Care Society,<br />
an association representing<br />
critical care physicians.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> fact that something<br />
is not defined in law does<br />
not mean that it doesn't<br />
have legal backing, as a<br />
concept. <strong>The</strong>re are many<br />
(instances in law) where it<br />
makes reference to accepted<br />
medical standards."<br />
Hilary Young, a law professor<br />
at the University of<br />
New Brunswick, said it's extremely<br />
rare for the nature<br />
of death to be at the heart of<br />
a court case, partly because<br />
brain death is widely recognized.<br />
In Quebec, the court<br />
was called to weigh in on<br />
the issue in the early <strong>20</strong>00s<br />
in a case involving a fatal<br />
car crash. <strong>The</strong> court had to<br />
decide exactly what constitutes<br />
brain death in order to<br />
figure out whether a woman<br />
or her toddler had died first,<br />
which would then determine<br />
who would inherit.<br />
It found that the baby<br />
boy had briefly outlived his<br />
mother based on the fact that<br />
he was able to breathe autonomously<br />
for a short time after<br />
the crash, which showed<br />
some brain stem function,<br />
documents show.<br />
<strong>Canadian</strong> medical guidelines<br />
define brain death<br />
as the irreversible loss of<br />
the capacity for consciousness<br />
combined with the irreversible<br />
loss of all brain<br />
stem functions, including<br />
the capacity to breathe autonomously.<br />
Cementing<br />
something as fundamental<br />
as death in law can be<br />
tricky, Young said, noting<br />
that Manitoba lawmakers<br />
were careful to ensure their<br />
wording would survive any<br />
changes in diagnostic tools<br />
and allow physicians to exercise<br />
some discretion, particularly<br />
when working outside<br />
of a hospital setting.<br />
"My view is that legislation<br />
might be helpful<br />
but I don't think it would<br />
change anything, assuming<br />
the standard legislated was<br />
brain death," she said.<br />
Even allowing for religious<br />
accommodation,<br />
like the states of New York<br />
and New Jersey have done,<br />
wouldn't actually change<br />
the definition of death, she<br />
said. It lets patients deemed<br />
brain dead stay on a respirator<br />
until their heart fails,<br />
which "buys the family a<br />
little time," she said. "<strong>The</strong> accommodation<br />
is not, 'you get<br />
to decide for yourself what<br />
death means,'" she said.<br />
"Even without legislation, I<br />
expect hospitals sometimes<br />
accommodate religious belief<br />
by allowing the ventilator<br />
to remain on until cardiac<br />
death occurs."<br />
Ouanounou's family is<br />
seeking to keep him on a<br />
respirator until his heart<br />
fails, which is how Orthodox<br />
Judaism defines death, their<br />
lawyer Hugh Scher has said.<br />
McKitty's family, which<br />
is Christian, is seeking to<br />
retain a new expert who can<br />
assess whether her movements<br />
are spinal reflexes or<br />
something more. An expert<br />
previously hired by the family<br />
was disqualified from testifying<br />
after telling the court<br />
he does not believe in brain<br />
death.