R. v. Cuerrier
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{{SCCInfoBox
|case-name=R. v. Cuerrier
|full-case-name=Her Majesty The Queen v. Henry Gerard Cuerrier
|heard-date=March 27, 1998
|decided-date=December 3, 1998
|citations=[1998] 2 S.C.R. 371
|history=BC Court of Appeal
|ruling= Crown appeal allowed, new trial ordered.
|ratio=
|SCC=1998-1999
|Majority=Cory J.
|JoinMajority=Major, Bastarache and Binnie JJ
|Concurrence=L’Heureux‑Dubé J.
|Concurrence2=McLachlin J.
|JoinConcurrence2=Gonthier J.
|NotParticipating=
|LawsApplied=
}}'''''R. v. Cuerrier''''' was a 1998 decision by the [[Supreme Court of Canada]], which ruled that knowingly exposing a sexual partner to [[HIV]] constitutes a prosecutable crime (aggravated assault) under [[Canada|Canadian]] law.
==Background==
The case involved '''Henry Cuerrier''', a man from [[British Columbia]] who tested positive for HIV in 1992. He subsequently had sexual relationships with two women, in which he neither disclosed his HIV status nor used [[condom]]s to protect his partners. Both women later learned of Cuerrier's HIV status, and Cuerrier was subsequently charged with aggravated assault even though both women subsequently tested HIV-negative.
Under Canadian law, a charge of assault requires proof that the defendant's actions endangered the life of the complainant, and that the force must have been intentionally applied. Cuerrier, whose case was based on the fact that both women had consented to have unprotected sex with him, was acquitted in the initial court hearing. On appeal to the [[British Columbia Court of Appeal]], the first court's ruling was upheld.
==Reasons of the Court==
The Supreme Court ruled that Cuerrier's failure to disclose his HIV status constituted [[fraud]]. The women's consent to unprotected sexual activity, therefore, was not validly given as it was obtained through fraudulent means.
The court did, however, rule that an HIV-positive person who practices [[safer sex]] does not necessarily have a legal responsibility to disclose his or her status.
The judges were unanimous in ruling that failure to disclose HIV status constituted fraud, although they differed on how to implement the ruling in law. The majority decision, authored by Justice [[Peter Cory]], set out three criteria which should be proven in a prosecution on these grounds:
*the accused committed an act that a reasonable person would see as dishonest,
*there was a harm, or a risk of harm, to the complainant as a result of that dishonesty, and
*the complainant would not have consented but for the dishonesty by the accused.
In a minority opinion, Justice [[Beverley McLachlin]] favoured the specific addition of a clause regarding "deceit about sexually transmitted disease that induces consent" in the legal definition of fraud. In another minority opinion, Justice [[Claire L'Heureux-Dubé]] argued that the first and third criteria set out by Cory should suffice for a conviction; she did not favour a burden of proof whether there was an actual risk of harm.
==Implications==
Groups, including the [[Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network]], intervened in the case. The group raised a number of potential implications of the decision, including:
*the prospect that criminalizing a failure to disclose one's HIV status will deter sexually active persons from getting tested for HIV in the first place,
*the potential of a negative impact on [[Physician|doctor]]-patient relationships if the courts open the door to a doctor being [[subpoena]]ed to testify as to the defendant's HIV status,
*lulling sexually active persons into a "false sense of security" that they need not practice safer sex since criminal law, rather than their own sexual behaviour, protects them from HIV risk.
The court also did ''not'' rule that any burden of proof exists whether the accused even knew how to protect their sexual partners. While practising safer sex is considered a valid defense, no burden of proof exists whether the HIV-positive partner had ever actually been educated in safer sex practices.
Generally, legal analysts and HIV educators viewed the decision as "the wrong tool for the job", suggesting that it was an attempt to use criminal law to resolve what is, first and foremost, a public health matter.
In a similar [[United States|American]] case, [[Stephen Gendin]], a vice-president of ''[[Poz (magazine)|Poz]]'', commented that
<blockquote>''it would be one thing if we had perfect HIV prevention, and still there were people who were "acting irresponsibly". But we're not in that situation at all. I see the criminalization debate as a red herring — it diverts us from addressing the real problems with prevention and care. It allows us to feel like we're solving the crisis by going after these very specific and very weird situations when we're avoiding the much bigger problems that lead to most HIV transmissions.''</blockquote>
== Other cases ==
The first Canadian citizen ever charged with failing to disclose his HIV status to a sexual partner was Charles Ssenyonga, a [[Uganda]]n immigrant living in [[London, Ontario]] who was charged with aggravated assault stemming from three sexual encounters in the late 1980s. Ssenyonga, however, died in 1993 before a verdict was rendered in his case.
Ray Mercer, a 28-year-old man from [[Upper Island Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador]], was charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm in 1991 after potentially infecting up to 14 women. (He was charged after Ssenyonga, but went to trial earlier.) He was sentenced in 1992 to two and half years in prison; on a Crown appeal, Mercer's sentence was increased to 11 years. Mercer was released from prison in 2003.
In 2003, Edward Kelly was charged and convicted of knowingly exposing four women to HIV, and sentenced to three years in prison. In 2004, Jennifer Murphy became the first woman charged in Canada with failing to disclose her HIV status to a sexual partner.
On [[October 28]], [[2005]], [[Canadian Football League|CFL]] player [[Trevis Smith]] was also charged with [[sexual assault|aggravated sexual assault]] for failing to disclose his HIV status to a sex partner. Smith was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault on [[February 8]], [[2007]].
On [[November 16]], a court ruled that there was sufficient evidence for [[Johnson Aziga]], whose case was first investigated and publicized in 2004, to stand trial on two counts of [[first-degree murder]] after two of his former sexual partners died of [[AIDS]].
To date, every such case prosecuted in the Canadian legal system has involved [[heterosexuality|heterosexual]] HIV transmission. Some Canadian legal analysts have contended that the legal response to cases involving heterosexual transmission, when compared to the relative lack of response to cases of [[homosexuality|homosexual]] transmission, suggests a [[homophobia|homophobic]] assumption that HIV is an ''inherent'' risk of same-sex encounters, but ''not'' of opposite-sex ones.
Analysts have also called attention to the [[Race (classification of human beings)|racial]] aspects of the cases. Many of the cases of HIV transmission prosecuted to date have involved [[Black Canadian|black]] men. One notable scholarly paper on the Ssenyonga case, published in 2005, was titled ''African Immigrant Damnation Syndrome''.
== References ==
* {{lexum-scc2|1998|2|371|796}}
*[http://www.aidslaw.ca/publications/publicationsdocEN.php?ref=28 ''After Cuerrier: Canadian Criminal Law and the Non-Disclosure of HIV-Positive Status'' at www.aidslaw.ca]
*[http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/srsp.2005.2.2.31?journalCode=srsp ''African Immigrant Damnation Syndrome: The Case of Charles Ssenyonga'' in ''Sexuality Research and Social Policy'']
Additional Rulings from the courts regarding HIV Transmission would include R. v. Williams (2003)http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/2003/2003scc41/2003scc41.html
[[Category:HIV/AIDS in Canada|Cuerrier]]
[[Category:Supreme Court of Canada cases|Cuerrier]]
[[Category:Criminal transmission of HIV]]
[[Category:1998 in law|Cuerrier]]
[[Category:1998 in Canada|Cuerrier]]