Housing

For those who do now know that to receive subsidized housing you will have to wait approximately 10 years to get placed into housing.  As the Provincial Government has cut back drastically the amount of housing it is building, and with most of the new buildings that are being built in the city being condominiums,  the wait will be longer not shorter as the need becomes higher unless something is done about this issue, not only for my community but yours as well.

Groups that support affordable housing:

The Future of Affordable Housing in Toronto

Have your say on Housing Opportunities Toronto: An Affordable Housing Framework –2008-2018, a proposed 10-year plan to create and maintain affordable housing.

PUBLIC CONSULTATION MEETINGS

Wednesday, May 14 – Scarborough Civic Centre

 6:30 to 9 p.m.

Wednesday, May 28 – North York Civic Centre

                  6:30 to 9 p.m.

 Wednesday, June 4 – Etobicoke Civic Centre

6:30 to 9 p.m.

Monday, June 16 – Affordable Housing Committee 

  Deputations – 1:30 p.m., City Hall, Committee Room 2

For more information: www.toronto.ca/affordablehousing

www.socialplanningtoronto.org/25in5/index.html

www.hungrycity.ca

And if you want to see what the housing situation is like view the report by CTV’s W-FIVE www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080425/WFIVE_landlord_080426/20080426?hub=WFive

Courts system and the Stigma of being HIV+

We all have heard on the new about HIV+ people going to jail for being HIV+ but the public only hears one side of the story because of the stigma surrounding HIV we are afraid to speak up and demand our dignity and respect! 

 In reality HIV is not really any different than Cancer or Diabetes. Just as HIV is preventable so are Cancer and Diabetes in most cases, and no one places a negative stigma on them! And we need to sit down and look at the discussions case by case as there are some we all agree with and others that are just a slap in the face to our community.

 I agree if someone purposely goes and rapes or is asked, and fails to disclose there status, then they are in the wrong.  But if you smoke cigarettes and you get lung cancer did you not know the risks.  Read the cigarette box it clearly says smoking may cause cancer, how clearer the message must is and yet people still smoke!

 When are the courts going to realize that we as a society needs to place a great importance on the fact that we can not all be so naive or stupid.  Because of the media and the internet the public has so much information about this disease; and information about any subject and that it is out there and still spreading.  If they are taking risks with their own lives then they should own up when they are forced to face the consequences of their own actions.

Believe me if I go into Tim Horton’s and buy a tea I don’t need them to tell me that it is going to be hot, or I would have asked to have an ice tea.  What kind of example are we setting for our society?

   If we all know that there are risks and we are still taking the chance. Then really why it that the only the HIV+ person charged and not the person taking the risk.  If they fail to ask than they are taking a risk, and even if they don’t ask.  If someone puts their member into my person without asking permission or if I was HIV+, should he not be charged with reckless behaviour to? 

What about the people who are in reality positive and don’t know it because they won’t get tested.  Because they assume that if they don’t know and assume that they are negative and since they believe that they are negative, they don’t use protection and they are infecting or putting at risk everyone they have unprotected sex with. And because they don’t officially know their status no charges can be laid on them.

Do you have a complaint regarding treatment in the court process or being discriminated by the courts system for being HIV+ the link to their page on the process of filing a complaint is?

http://www.ontariocourts.on.ca/ojc/en/information.htm

See also at the end of this report the Canada and the Ontario human rights code

The medical profession

I can only thank God or the Universe that I did not get infected when HIV first arrived.  The horror stories of what people went through with the problems of going from no treatment, to countless studies, from treatment at the hospitals, funeral homes, and their own families.

There are countless studies stating this or that, what are we to believe!!! When they really don’t have any real answers surrounding HIV!

 If only you knew of the amount of medical test we have to endure, memory lost (I can have three cups of tea, going at the same time) chronic pain ( I am in so much pain and the first set of medications gave me a massive heart attack, and no I would never think about suing the company I knew of the risks) and the worse constant fatigue( I will have all this energy and then zap it gone and back to bed as if I had not slept in days, but then medications for my Thyroid give me insomnia, so when I want to sleep have to take sleeping pills.  If I don’t take the Thyroid then I will die, and I got these problems as a result from the radiation from Hodgkins’ Disease)  

At very least we have some very good and carrying professions out there but then there are those who when asked about a problem, give the excuse that it is because we are HIV+ and they feel that this will answer the patients concerns for health issues. When there could be a real and dangerous reason as to these medical issues.

I am not going to take it anymore and hope that out there you are tired of living with the stigma of HIV, because if you are putting all of your hopes into that they are going to find a cure for HIV think again. Just look at the cancer community or the diabetes community and you will soon realize that we are nowhere closer to a cure for these diseases and they have been around longer than HIV.

I know that there are places in our community which job they have taken on for caring for those close to there end. I have supported one by volunteering in their fundraisers.  I had met the founder of this place on a number of occasions, and I have the greatest respect for her and her organization with the work that they provide to our communities.

(I also would like to sit down with the Minister of Health and discuss ideas or solutions to problems within our health care system.  If I can’t or when I get a meeting with them I will publish solutions that were presented to us and ways of getting these issues dealt with.)

If we have issues with the care received by your medical care team you can lodge a complaint with:

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario

80 College Street,

Toronto, On

M5G 2E2.

Their web site is http://www.cpso.on.ca/default.htm

To get a list of doctors who have had complaints filed against them is

http://www.cpso.on.ca/Info_Public/Dis_sum/disc_sumtoc.htm

And to file a complaint go to

 http://www.cpso.on.ca/Info_Public/factcomp.htm

Euthanasia and Dying with Dignity

How is the greater community going to accept our deaths when they don’t know the real reasons why they are happen?   When we die it is mainly recorded due to cancer or heart disease but in reality because of the way this disease destroys our bodies, and with the side affects from the handful of medication we take, it gets reported as anything other than HIV.

Imagine going to someone’s house and finding them dead from taking bottles of sleeping pills, or slashing their wrist, or jumping from their balconies.

I personally believe that a person should have the right to end his or her own life.  I know this watching my friends and my community slowly wither away and when this person is just lying there with drool running down their faces and no one to clean it up.  I don’t agree that a person should end their lives just because they are HIV+; there is still a life after being diagnosed HIV+, my life is an example.

Bigger and exciting things have happened to me since I became positive and I realize now all of those things I would have missed out on!!

I know I would want my closest friend or family by my side and let me have my dignity and be in peace and not have to suffer anymore.  I would sit by someone’s side until the bitter end and give them their dignity if I believed that they were making the right decision or I acknowledge because of their situation to end their own personal life.  I would not however provided them with the pills or a blade or push them over any balcony.

If they want to do it then I would want to be planning it but I would just make sure that they are not laying there for days before anyone realizes there is something wrong. 

How many more of us are going to die or allow ourselves to slowly and painfully die when we stop taking our med’s.  I know that at least in my case with all the pills that I take it won’t be long for my body to respond and my death would come quickly.  This is what happens in our community every day!

But because of the laws we are afraid to get involved or be there for fear of persecution by the courts for just being there!

http://www.righttodie.ca

http://www.religioustolerance.org/euthanas.htm

http://www.religioustolerance.org/euthnl.htm