s on Campus —

empt from the ethical problems

created by the epidemic. Yet, nearly ten years after the syn- drome has been identified, few Canadian universities have com- prehensive guidelines to deal with students or staff who have been exposed to the AIDS virus.

'“It is obvious there are more than a few students in- fected,” says Ken Morrison, a re- searcher at the McGill Centre for Medecine, Ethics and Law. “The university campus ‘is not exempt from the statistics affecting the rest of Canada.”

As employers and as public institutions, universities have an obligation to give people with AIDS every opportunity to be

The Art of Evading the Issue

functioning members of society, Morrison says.

“People with AIDS experi- ence a gradual breakdown of so- cial support, and they soon find themselves in a position where they don’t have much control over their lives. It is very important that their job and studies con- tinue.”

There are more than 80 uni- versities and colleges in Canada.

Only five are known to have

policies prohibiting discrimina- tion against AIDS carriers.

They are the University of British Columbia, Carleton Uni- versity in Ottawa, Concordia University in Montreal, the Uni- versity of New Brunswick and

Student group

wants orientation in Act

tia community of Barrington Pas- sage threatened to keep their chil- dren away from classes. Smith’s doctor had sent blood samples away for analysis without the patient’s knowledge: the HIV- positive results were leaked to the community by the physician’s secretary. __

The... _. HIV-positive result means Smith has been ex- posed to the AIDS virus,

The virus is passed through unprotected sexual intercourse or sharing needles. It blocks the body’s immune system. —_

The Tory ‘provincial. govern- ment offered Smith.a full-time job on the task force.

Nova Scotia Health Minis- ter Joel Matheson said he will introduce legislation giving the Province the right to quarantine people carrying the AIDS virus.

That announcement was made after a warrant was issued for the arrest of Scott Wentzell, a bisexual man charged with criminal negligence Causing bedily harm for allegedly infecting a woman with the virus. Wentzell turned himself in: bail

‘equirements include abstaining from sex,

=—

Britsh Columbia’s Social Credit government passed: quar- antine legislation amendments in December over objections from

AIDS groups who feared AIDS

_ patients will be targetted.

“There is a lot of stigma around (AIDS) testing. This will undoubtedly drive people under- ground. I’ve already heard of people dropping out,” said Kevin Brown, of the Vancouver People With AIDS Coalition.

The Nova Scotia govecnment also turned down anonymous AIDS testing. - é

Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and the Yukon have already in- cluded sexual orientation in their human rights legislation. An Oc- tober 1985 report titled Equality for All which recommended pro- tecting gays and lesbians in the federal Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms has yet to be acted upon.

However, a Caandian Human Rights Commission official said the act bans discrimination on the basis of disability, which the commission considers AIDS to be.

Dalhousie University in Halifax. The University of Calgary is to adopt a similar policy this fall.

The University of Toronto, the country’s largest post- sec- ondary institution with 50,000 students and 12,000 staff mem- bers does not have any guidelines.

McGill University - despite being located in Montreal, the

city with the second largest proportion of AIDS victims in Canada — does not have an AIDS policy either.

Universities are unable to adopt guidelines because they don’t have a wider “philosophy” to deal with AIDS, says Richard Burzynski, executive director of the Canadian AIDS Society in Ottawa.

“Really, very little has been done. The university has to have information about what AIDS is. The education has to be there, and more than just a condom.”

According to Fiona Nelson, a member of the Ontario Pub- lic Education Panel on AIDS who helped draft AIDS policies for a Toronto school board, guidelines are even more important at the university level where most stu- dents are sexually active.

“For goodness’ sake, get the policy in place before you need it,” she says. “Because if you

need it, stampeding and panic and hysteria can really cloud your judgement. Just because it’s an academic institution doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of hys- teria.”

That public institutions need an AIDS policy is illustrated by the Eric Smith case in Nova Sco- tia.

A sixth grade teacher in Bar- rington Passage, N.S., Smith was transferred last year to a non- teaching position when parents threatened to keep children away

- from his class because he was an

AIDS carrier.

Smith’s doctor had sent blood samples for analysis without his -: The HIV (human.

knowledge. ' immuno-deficiency virus) posi- tive result were leaked to the community by the physician’s secretary.

The subsequent controversy subsided only when the provincial government created a task force on AIDS and appointed Smith a member last fall.

When the task force recom- mended in October the introduc- tion of a system of anonymous testing, Nova Scotia health min- ister Joel Matheson turned down the suggestion, saying that mea- sures to ensure the confidentiality

of AIDS carriers are already ade-.

quate.

Current university policies may not be enough to pro- tect AIDS carriers, says Roy- den Traynor, acting chairperson of the Students’ Union of Nova Scotia (SUNS), which represents 20,000 students at six universi- ties.

Dalhousie for example guar- antees confidentiality to AIDS carriers, but subject to the lim- itations of federal and provincial laws, and to regulations requiring health information for employees’

benefits packages. noes UBC’s policy, which is only

five-paragraph long, states that “carriers...may continue working or studying unless they become incapable of carrying out their studies or threaten to endanger

others.” According

to Carleton’s guidelines, the uni- versity is opposed to mandatory screening and testing. People with AIDS would be able to work, attend classes and use all recre- ational and residential facilities. -Howver, the school can review each case individually and make

“adjustments.” “It is very. difficult to know

“one’s rights. when the policies ’ are filled with these disclaimers,” ‘says Trainor. °“They have more politiéal sense than pure medical

‘pemee eH aN te Bos <The universities’s policies can

* also be invalidated by any provin-

cial or federal legislations. In British Columbia, AIDS groups fear that amendments to the province’s: Health Act will al-

low the government to quaran-

tine AIDS patients. Nova Scotia is also considering similar legisla- tion. ‘

_AIDS activists say that ulti- mately laws against discrimina- tion based on sexual orientation are needed to protect AIDS car- riers because the two issues are linked in the public mind.

But to date, only Que- bec, Ontario, Manitoba and the Yukon have banned discrimina- tion against gay men in their hu- man rights acts. The federal Charter of Rights does not in- clude such protection.

“Very few people anywhere have any sense of how big a prob- lem this could become for uni- versities,” says Traynor. “Those policies could ultimately be use- less.”

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