I have enjoyed reading the various comments on this story. Whether or not this man is guilty, I don’t know. It does bring up a very good issue. I also think that the facts are very simple. The issue is this: A person who knows that they have a highly contagious and fatal disease that is sexually transmitted and they knowingly have unprotected sex without telling their partner and allowing them to have a choice as to whether they want to take this risk is tantamount to homicide. Becoming infected is a lot surer than Russian Roulette. People who do this should be severely punished. Sex is not a toy!! Responsible adults need to behave in a grown up way and be totally open and honest about this. Aids has been around long enough now that I think most people are educated or know where they can find out about sex safety issues with aids. It’s wrong not to give your sex partner the choice to say “no”if they don’t want to have sex with you. Infection is a very good reason not to if that’s how they feel.

@ c.j. brock–You’re disturbed by the notion that people in the spectrum are somehow defined by it? I’m trying hard not to unleash on the ignorance I see behind your comment. You think it’s some petty issue of identity politics when a cold can drop somebody’s immune system like Holyfield could drop Stephen Hawking? Do you understand that having the flu can take somebody in the spectrum who’s doing well on meds, and drop their t-cell count from 1200 to well below 500 in a matter of days? You’re spouting a bunch of ignorant crap; I’m talking from experience with people who matter to me.

There was something about an “evolutionary path.” Sounds like Professor Ayn Rand and the Pragmatism of Social Darwinism. Yes, people who live in over-sanitized environments who don’t have exposure to enough dirt do have problems with immune system development. That doesn’t justify floating poo down the center of the street. It doesn’t justify letting HIV entrench itself as an endemic untreated illness, so that humanity can “evolve” into some state of resistance.

Again, there is evidence that this man knew what he did. There seems to be laboratory evidence showing that his strain of HIV is the source of these womens’ infections. I didn’t even touch on the fact that he’s Ugandan, coming from a country where one-third of adults were infected a few years back, and I didn’t comment on the cultural factors which fed that infection rate. They speak for themselves.

CJ, what do you know about the experience of people with HIV? Your words don’t show awareness, and they do show lack of knowledge. Go back and look at what’s been posted. Check the link to Rosie DiManno’s column. If I point a gun at somebody, ANYBODY who handles guns will tell you that I was fundamentally irresponsible. “It wasn’t loaded”? That one doesn’t work (and for a good example of why, go look up Jon Eric Hexum on Wikipedia). People will likely always die of illnesses, but you seem to give a frightening license to this virus to go out and kill. You do the same for people who carry it and who act with selfishness.

I continue to be disturbed by the idea that those who carry this virus are responsible for it and to it. There are thousands of deadly virus’s on this planet that if all were held to the same accounting in law or society no one could procreate or even go outside. This hysteria has to end, you can only achieve what health statis you can. we are part a a very complex system that carry’s with it the end game, why not charge our parents with murder for birthing us as that too will lead to our death. Fear is a great financial boon for those who can continue these views at thier current delusion, it employ’s a vast number of PHD’s, allows for a stigmatized demoralized and marginalized group to be used for science projects that the Nazi’s would have found joy in. If you search deep enough you will find that this was created by scientists that supposedly didn’t know that the monkey brains they were using for a vaccine for jungle fever carried this virus,and then we need to address the idea that the greatest science minds faught a ten year battle over the rights to the elisa test that is used to determine ones H.I.V. statis. Never giving one thought to the number of people were passing it along, or that the N.I.H. and Gallo’s hands are bloodied by the millions of people that contracted this disease through ignorance and ego. The real issue may be that no matter how you look at this, it is a human property to pick up these virus’s as we move along our evolutionary path and that some have shown to help build onging protection systems in our bodies where others have simple wiped out a huge number. is this the planets debugging program? Some infected with this virus have never had an advancement in it’s normal pattern while others have quickly faded into the ash that we are all destined to be. Is it normal to the planet and our humanity to get and process virus’s as we evolve, yes is the answer and to call someone a murderer for being part of the process of this planet is at the very least insane.Comdoms have a 15% chance of failing but by all means let that be as it may or shall we all live in a rubber delusion.

The case was in Hamilton, not Toronto. Toronto Start columnist Rosie DeManno wrote this column regarding the case http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/614215

Many US states have laws allowing criminal prosecution of people with HIV who knowingly expose others to risk. I have a friend whose ex was poz (and abusive, and no the two have nothing to do with each other). Friend went to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor with evidence that ex was routinely engaging in unprotected sex, not disclosing his status; the prosecutor did exactly nothing.

My ex is poz. He’s very straightforward about his status and insists on protection. He’s lectured some of his friends on not joining the spectrum with their self-acknowledged reckless behavior.

How do you prove that A infected B with HIV? You can examine the strains. This is most effective at the first sign of infection, before either strain has time to mutate. It’s how public health officials confirm disease vectors.

I think the conviction was fair. How does the prospect of conviction deter anybody from knowing their status? If you haven’t been tested, don’t know your status, and haven’t had any flu-like events, even for a couple of days, you’ve got a strong defense. If you get high a lot, put yourself in risky situations, and aren’t in the best health, then you’re still innocent until proven guilty. The people I know in the HIV spectrum–whether or not they always use protection, whether or not they use party drugs–they’re generally responsible about not exposing others.

People who want to argue about this can look at it another way. I drink a local beer; the one in my hand is 6% alcohol by volume. If I drink a 12-pack in two hours, and I weigh 225, I’m still gonna be lit like Macy’s at Christmas. Is there anybody here who would accept the argument that I wasn’t drunk until a breathalyzer proved it? Doubt it.

If you check out the court case, the man did this to at least 13 women – only 2 of them died. 7 of them (including the two who died) contracted HIV. This is a pattern and if you check the court documents you will see that the evidence against him was physical and not just Aziga’s word against the womens’. This is NOT the story we fear in the gay community, where someone is being targeted merely for having the HIV disease and then inadvertently pass it on during consensual sex. vd – get tested. We are all here to back you up and to help differentiate between those with HIV who made bad mistakes that might hurt others, and those that are TRULY criminal in their undertakings!

“People are going to not be tested even if they suspect they may have the HIV virus in order to protect the knowledge that they don’t have it.”
Thats one of the reasons I have not gotten tested.

It seems the threshold for proof here must have been quite low and that certainly would put it within “a reasonable doubt”. Exactly how does one conclusively prove that someone who is HIV positive has, in fact, infected another person? Did these women never have sex with anyone else? What about their other sex partners? Why is this man the only responsible party in the women becoming infected? Are they not responsible for their own sexual health as well? I agree that this could easily translate into people not getting tested for HIV and not disclosing their status. Beyond being able to prove that the man infected the women, it does suggest a very problematic precedent. I’m not saying the man is guilty or not – I don’t know – but I also don’t think the jury “knows” either.