The Canadian National Newspaper: Nova Scotia racism undermines HIV-AIDS prevention and treatment

Racism, religion, stigma and the taboo surrounding sex are among the key factors that have led to a lack of HIV/AIDS information and essential services in Nova Scotia’s black communities, says Dalhousie’s chair of black Canadian studies.

“You’ve got agencies that have been accused of being racist, agencies which are staffed by people who don’t look like the individuals they’re trying to service, agencies which have… stereotypical ideas about black people and tend to reflect those stereotypes in practice,” says David Divine. “That leads to difficulties.”

Stigma surrounding homosexuality and HIV/AIDS, as well as societal 'taboo' of sex in general, has resulted in a lack of vitally needed openness to discuss the disease in black communities, suggests Divine.

“When you’ve got all these in the melting pot, in addition to historical dis-servicing of certain people because of colour, then you have got a toxic mix,” he says.

Divine’s project, which falls under Nova Scotia’s HIV/AIDS strategy, is designed to raise awareness of the disease and increase black people’s trust in HIV/AIDS agencies. But the first task, he says, is to generate discussion about the disease within black communities in Nova Scotia.

“Issues aren’t being addressed and they need to be,” says Divine. “They’re not discussing and [are] operating in silence.”

People who need to know about HIV/AIDS are not getting access to information, people who need services aren’t getting them, and people lack confidence that their personal information will be kept confidential, Divine says.

Members of some black communities in Nova Scotia have travelled to Toronto to be treated for HIV, rather than risk having their identity revealed in Nova Scotia, he says. “And that is simply not acceptable.”

Divine will meet with health-care workers, community leaders and residents in one of the province’s black communities this month to talk about health concerns, including HIV/AIDS, for the first step of the project.

“It’s very important to broach the subject in this way because if you had a specific session on AIDS and HIV and asked people to come to it, chances are you wouldn’t get very many. That’s the reality here in Nova Scotia,” says Divine. “That’s because of the toxic mix, particularly the stigma relating to AIDS and HIV.”

Larry Baxter, chair of the Nova Scotia Advisory Commission on AIDS, says the provincial strategy on HIV/AIDS, announced in 2003, lacked input from black communities.

“We did recognize that that was a weakness of the strategy and that we needed to do more work,” he says.

Part of Divine’s mandate involves finishing consultations with black communities and taking the first steps toward improving access to information.

Baxter and Divine both stress that stigma and difficulty in broaching the subject are not unique to Nova Scotia’s black communities, and exist in all of society.

The strategy, says Baxter, targets a variety of vulnerable groups, not just black communities, but also women, aboriginal people, prisoners, intravenous drug users and young gay males.

HIV/AIDS already exists in black communities in Nova Scotia, says Baxter, but there isn’t any public discussion about the disease in some areas.

Denial and a lack of information are the main reasons why these communities remain closed-lipped about the disease, he says.

“In some cases we lack the epidemiological data to indicate that there is a trend going on in certain communities, especially small communities,” he says.

Nationally, just over two per cent of Canadians are black, yet black people account for more than 20 per cent of HIV infections.

“We do know from our experience with AIDS over the last 20 years that when you see a trend happening nationally, it’s only a matter of time before that trend is an issue we have to deal with here in Nova Scotia,” says Baxter.

“HIV is an illness that has affected, will affect, and continues to affect African Nova Scotian communities.”

Divine likens the process of triggering discussion about the disease to treading on eggshells. “Sometimes you go three steps forward and 10 steps back,” he says.

“But at the end of the day, the critical thing is to make sure individuals who want information about AIDS/HIV, who need to have information about AIDS/HIV, perhaps need to access service relating to AIDS/HIV, can do so without stigma, shame or fear.”

Make comments about this article in The Canadian Blog.

Become a Member:

Would you like to see other similar articles and critical commentaries in The Canadian National Newspaper? Then, show your support. Make a member-pledge donation, in support of the Membership Drive of the Pro-Democracy Media Foundation.

The Canadian can only continue to publish investigative articles in such areas, with the donations from members of the public in Canada, the U.S., and abroad. Consider making a donation of $50.00, $75.00, $100.00, $200.00 or more. Donors are eligible to receive our first collector's print edition in mail. Alternatively, you can send us a note to be placed on our special email list of members. Member-donors can also suggest articles or commentaries to be published in The Canadian.

The Canadian is a socially progressive and not-for-profit national newspaper, with an international readership. We provide an alternative to the for-profit commercial focused media, which often censors vital information and perspective of potential interest to the diverse Canadian public, and other peoples internationally.

Server Error in '/' Application.

The resource cannot be found.