AIDS NB: 25 Years Serving the Community
Transcript of AIDS NB: 25 Years Serving the Community
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Wrien and Researched
by Nicholas S. DoyleAIDS NB Volunteer
Commissioned by
AIDS New Brunswick,
in associaon with the
Public Health Agency of Canada.
First published in 2011
in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
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Early History
AIDS New Brunswick was started as a
kind of rebellion. People involved with
HIV in New Brunswick were told that the
government would only require a num-
ber to idenfy people who had tested
posive, and that only a persons doctor
would know if he or she had tested posi-
ve. Grace Gey was working as a publichealth nurse at the me, and received
reassurances from the chief medical
ocer that this was the case. However,
she subsequently learned at a medical
conference that district medical ocerswere going to doctors and collecng
names of people who had been infected
by the virus. It turned out that HIV/AIDS
had been added to the communicable
disease registry, which was reportableby name and not number, and that no
provisions had been made for conden-
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ality. Outraged by this, Grace Gey, whohad just completed her Masters thesis
on the health and wellness of gay men,
reached out to the gay community in or-
der to put a face
on the disease.She connected
with Hal Heinz.
It was around his
kitchen table in
1985 that he, JimGoltz, and Grace
Gey met and
decided to cre-
ate a non-prot
organizaon thatwould help those living with AIDS. They
called it AIDS New Brunswick because
they felt that there was a need for a pro-
vincial organizaon that would support
communies throughout New Bruns-
Execuve Directors
of AIDS NB:
Elaine SusseyClaude Olivier
Haley Flaro
Jo Lang
Nick Sco
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wick. Jim Goltz became the rst board
president. Anne Rowe was also instru-
mental in the founding of the organiza-
on. However, she was not ableto be part of the inial group, as she
was currently working as a civil servant
for the department of health. She was
aware of dierent AIDS groups spread-
ing around the country and she was
Nick Sco, Ted Gaudet, Steve Paerson, Elaine Sussey
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able to help the organizaon get fund-
ing. She later became the organizaons
rst secretary.
Grace Gey reminisces: From the very
beginning we were an advocacy group
that were there to kind of hold the gov-
ernments feet to the re. The group
immediately went to the chief medical
ocer in the province, Dr. Dave Walters,
who had made the promises concerningthe condenality of HIV tesng. He ex-
plained that the change was due to the
fact that they had to protect the blood
supply. However, he refused to admit
that they were linking the list to theblood donor list. Despite this, around
the province many dierent ERs were
becoming equipped with lists of people
who were known or suspected to have
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HIV/AIDS. The lack of condenality
was devastang to the community. Gay
rights were far behind at the me, and a
person could sll be red from their job
just for being gay. Because of this manypeople were refusing to be tested and
lived in fear. Anonymous tesng was be-
ing performed in Maine, and volunteers
from AIDS New Brunswick would take
people across the boarder to get tested.
From the beginning there was a great
emphasis on educang the community.
When the organizaon was founded, it
was known how HIV/AIDS was spread.
However, there was sll a lot of misin-
formaon concerning the subject. Grace
Gey, as a public health nurse, consid-
ered it vital that AIDS be discussed in a
scienc, non-dogmac way. In the ear-
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ly years, the organizaon did not have
the resources to make their own educa-
onal materials so they oen drew their
materials from Torontos organizaons.
They disseminated this informaonby going
to schools
and com-
munity cen-
tres as wellas sending
speakers out
to talk to
the public.
They specically targeted the gay com-
munity, as they were the most impact-
ed, and many gay bars were generous
enough to allow AIDS New Brunswick
volunteers to distribute informaon in
their establishments.
AIDS New Brunswick is
the community charity
of Aitken House at UNB
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In those early days everyone who
worked for the organizaon did so on a
volunteer basis. Almost immediately a
board was formed to oversee the orga-nizaon.
Every
task that
the orga-
nizaon
dealt
with also
had a
separate
com-
miee.
There
were commiees for educaon, advo-
cacy, networking, and so forth. These
commiees and the board were origi-
AIDS New Brunswick wasemployee of the year in
2010 for the Canadian Men-
tal Health Associaon for
the Fredericton/Oromocto
Region
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nally staed by the founding members,
but as more volunteers joined they ex-
panded to accommodate them. Within
a year, they developed the helpline. In
1988, the organizaon had receivedfederal funding and decided to hire an
execuve director. Elaine Sussey, a social
worker, was hired as the rst execuve
director. It was decided that the oce
needed a connual presence and ElaineSussey was instrumental in forming links
with other AIDS sociees across the
country and with the burgeoning PHA
community.
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Helpline
In October 1987, AIDS New Brunswick
began operang a helpline. It was origi-
nally started because of the high volume
of phone calls to the organizaon from
people not only looking for informaon
about AIDS, but also from people with
AIDS looking for help. It was decided
that AIDS New Brunswick needed to
operate a toll-free line in order to bet-
ter help their clientele, as many of them
lived throughout the province and many
lived below the poverty line. It was al-
most a year before AIDS New Bruns-wick was able to obtain the provincial
funding necessary for the helpline. The
kinds of calls that were received varied
greatly. Some people were only looking
for informaon, some were looking forcounseling, some were looking to vent,
and some people just wanted to connect
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with someone. In 1999 an enhanced da-
tabase for gathering informaon related
to HIV educaon and prevenon was
put into place. This system allowed for a
greater level of analysis to be done withthe helpline data.
Early on in its history, Grace Gey dis-
covered that the government wanted
to shut down the helpline and replaceit with
their own,
which
would be
staedby public
nurses.
She and
Elaine
Sussey
AIDS New Brunswickonce sharedoce space
withHealing Our Naons
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immediately aempted to contact the
health minister for a comment on the
situaon. However, the health minis-
ter refused to respond to their calls.
Gey then contacted local MLAs, whoclaimed not to know of any such thing.
The press at that point had caught wind
of the plan and started requesng in-
terviews. Gey and Sussey decided that
they would hold a press conference, butbefore they did so they contacted the
Premiers oce to explain that they had
been unable to contact the minister of
health, and that they had been contact-
ed by the press. Shortly aer the press
conference, Grace was called by the
minister of health, who wanted to meet
with them. When the health minister
was confronted with the accusaons, he
steadfastly denied it. However, within
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a month, Gey and Sussey were once
again called into the ministers oce.
They were treated
to ads for a toll-
free line that wasstaed by public
nurses. However,
at this point it was
only going to be
a research studyon the viability of
such a service, and the health minister
assured Grace that they would return
funding to AIDS New Brunswick helpline
aer the study was nished.
Although the funding for the helpline
was inially returned, the helpline was
shut down in favour of the government
run telecare. This was a major blow to
In 2003 the
helpline had 1,745
calls
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the organizaon,
which lost two
sta posions:
the Program
and EducaonCoordinators.
Both were spe-
cially trained to
deal with phone
calls from thehelpline. At the same me, the public
health nurses that were handling telec-
are were only prepared to discuss medi-
cal issues, and the counseling aspect of
the helpline was lost, to much public
dismay. Telecare also began forwarding
its AIDS related calls to AIDS New Bruns-
wick. AIDS New Brunswick started an
Infoline, which is for anyone who wants
to call in for informaon on the virus.
On June 26 ,1995 a tree
was planted at OdellParkcommemorat-
ing thosewho have
died fromHIV/AIDS
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Unfortunately, without the funding for
a social worker or councilor, the Infoline
is unable to help the community to the
same extent that the helpline did. The
loss of the helpline also had repercus-sions that echoed throughout the enre
organizaon. The loss of the Program
and Educaon Coordinators meant that
many of their responsibilies were shi-
ed on to other sta members. Also, theloss of the helpline ushered in a period
of frequent sta turnovers in the orga-
nizaon, which hindered its ability to
funcon at full capacity.
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In 1996 there was a schism between the
PHA community and AIDS New Bruns-
wick. It was over PHA emergency funds
that AIDS New Brunswick managed on
behalf of the PHA community. The PHA
community successfully convinced the
Public Health Agency of Canada to allow
them to take the special funding awayfrom AIDS New Brunswick. On top of
this, throughout the history of AIDS New
Brunswick there had always been a ten-
sion due to the allocaon of funds. AIDS
New Brunswick was founded to empha-size both the support of PHAs and to fo-
cus on prevenon and educaon. Many
PHAs felt that AIDS New Brunswick al-
located too much of its funds to preven-
on and educaon and not enough tohelping them. The PHA community then
created their own organizaon, which
they called The PHA Network of New
PHA Network of NB
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Brunswick. Unlike AIDS New Brunswick,
The PHA Network of New Brunswick
was staed enrely from PHAs from the
province. The Network was governed by
six boardmembers
and a
president,
and it
employedtwo sta
mem-
bers. Ted
Gaudet
was made
the rst
president
of the organizaon. They oered many
of the same services that AIDS New
Brunswick oered to the PHA commu-
Starng in 2008 the
public library in Fred-
ericton began housing
AIDS New Brunswicks
resource library materi-
als creang HIV/AIDS
secon that connues
to be updated yearly.
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nity, including counseling, a newsleer,
and gatherings. Because of this, AIDS
New Brunswick phased out many of its
PHA services, referring clients to the
Network for them. The helpline did con-nue to run, although it received calls
on a much less frequent basis.
Aer Ted Gaudet stepped down as pres-
ident, the Network experienced prob-
lems in leadership. The accountabilityof the Network was quesoned and it
lost much of its funding. Ted Gaudet
stepped in to try to save the Network,
but it was too late and it collapsed only
a few years aer its creaon. Aer the
Network collapsed, the PHA community
returned to AIDS New Brunswick, which
once again began running all of the PHA
services that had been deferred to the
Network. However, this was done on
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fewer resources as the funding from
the Public Health Agency of Canada was
never returned.. Although The PHA Net-
work of New Brunswick failed, it was a
triumphant show of power and commu-nity for PHAs living in New Brunswick.
It didnt last very long, but for me
it was the best show of empowering
a community to take acon againstsomething that we knew was essenal
for us, as a community. Ted Gaudet
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Arts Gala
The Art Gala was one of AIDS New
Brunswicks highest prole fundraisingevents. It spanned a decade, running
from 1990 unl the last one on Novem-
ber 20th 1999. It was started by a vol-
unteer, who had close es with the local
art community. She was able to convince
many arsts to donate their works for
the event. It was an aucon and a dance
with some food and entertainment. It
ran for several years before the energy
and expense of pung it on outweighed
the money raised from fundraising. Peo-
ple were starng to suspect that people
were looking for bargains more than
they were trying to help the organiza-
on. On top of this the arts community
was experiencing donor fague from theyearly event.
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Red Tie Affair
The Red Tie Aair is a major fundraising
event that was intended to be the suc-cessor to the
Art Gala. It
was started
by Anne
Moore, the
chair of the
funds de-
velopment
commiee,
in 2007. The previous year, AIDS New
Brunswick was forced to cancel its an-
nual fall forum for PHAs. The event was
created in order to make sure that the
organizaon would not need to cancel
the forum again. Because of this, all
proceeds from the Red Tie Aair go tothe PHA fund, which is used to nance
retreats and forums. At the rst Red Tie
Anne Moore and Tracy Rickards
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Aair, parcipants
would meet at
the Crowne Plaza
Hotel for hors
doeuvres, andthen go to one of
four parcipang
restaurants: Brew-
bakers, Crowne Plaza
Hotel, Racines, or The Blue Door. Aerdinner, the guests would return to the
Crowne Plaza for dessert and entertain-
ment. In subsequent years, the Red Tie
Aair lowered the amount of parcipat-
In past years, we focused more onthe dining experience. With the weather,
we didnt want to have people roaming
the streets in the dead of February, so
weve focused the event more around
the entertainment. - Nick Sco
In 2010, AIDS NBhad 3285 volun-
teer hours
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ing restaurant, unl the
fourth annual Red Tie
event was held enrely
at the Crowne Plaza.
The Red Tie Aair hadalways involved enter-
tainment, but the fourth
Red Tie Aair focused
more heavily on it as all
guests remained in thesame place the whole
night. This entertain-
ment included Steve Paerson and 80s
cover band Prey in Pink, both of which
were used heavily in the Aairs promo-
ons.
AIDS NB Cookbook
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The Needle Exchange was the brain
child of AIDS New Brunswick founder
Grace Gey and former Board PresidentMargaret Dykeman. It was formed in
1999. The Fredericton police force was
having problems with used syringes
being le out in public, especially
along the waterfront. The police thendecided that they would like to begin a
harm reducon campaign. Grace Gey,
who was watching the announcement
on television, immediately called the
police department and volunteered tocreate a harm reducon commiee.
The commiee was not under AIDS
New Brunswick, despite the fact that
several of its members sat on it. It took
about a year for the commiee to
get support from the province, create
a training procedure, and start the
Needle Exchange. Margaret Dykeman
Needle Exchange
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commented that [the needle exchange]
was an evoluon of where HIV was going
in the 90s-2000s. This was because drug
users were at a high risk of HIV infecon
due to the fact that many of them shared
needles.
Originally,
the Needle
Exchange
operatedout of the
ambulance
bay in the
Victoria
HealthCentre, and
was staed
by volunteers. However, problems arose
due to condenality. This was due to
the fact that the ambulance bay hadvery bright lights, and it was a struggle to
In 1999 the Needle Ex-
change took in over
3,000 used needles and
gave out over 1,600
clean needles
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keep them down so that people would
be more
likely to
come to the
exchange.
Eventually,due to a
decreasing
turnout, the
commiee
decided toplace the Needle Exchange under AIDS
New Brunswick and move it into their
oces. The reasoning behind this was
to have a higher level of condenality,
and to have a dedicated sta memberinvolved with it who could beer keep
track of the data in order to get beer
support from the province. The province
originally gave the Needle Exchange
supplies instead of direct funding.However, in 2008 the province decided
In 2010 the Needle Ex-change gave out 76, 644
needles and took in
44, 565. 367 clients used
the service 1,115 mes.
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to stop supplying the Needle Exchangeand instead began funding it so that the
Needle Exchange would be responsible
for its own sta and supply needs. This
led the organizaon to partner itself with
AIDS Saint John and SIDA AIDS Monctonfor its supply needs. The idea behind the
partnership was to get a beer price for
their supplies by ordering in bulk.
If this service didnt exist it would
be a terrible shame. People would startusing their old rigs and HIV and Hep C
would start to rise again. People come
here and they feel safe. this is a non-
judgmental space, and for many it is the
only one they have. I hope that this ser-vice never goes away
- Anonymous
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The Health and Wellness Commiee is
the PHA arm of AIDS New Brunswick. It
was originally called the PLWHIV/AIDSCommiee
of New
Brunswick,
but it
changedits name to
The Health
and Welfare
Commiee
of People Living with HIV and AIDSin New Brunswick unl 2009, when
it was changed again to simply The
Health and Wellness Commiee. The
organizaon of the commiee has
changed over the years. Originallythe PHA community would vote on
a steering commiee of six people
who essenally were The Health and
Health & Wellness
Committee
The Expenses of theArts Gala increased by
629.5 percent between
1990 and 1998
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Wellness Commiee. In me, it was
changed so that all PHAs who wanted
to be part of the commiee would be
part of it, and the steering commiee
would act as a coordinators of the
commiees acvies. The purpose ofthe commiee is to ensure that PHAs
have a voice in AIDS New Brunswick.
They are responsible for helping AIDS
New Brunswick organize PHA retreats,
forums and newsleer, as well assuggesng improvements to their
programs and suggesng new ones.
Its just a very commonsense way
for the community to come togetherand agree on something. Ted Gaudet
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The PHA Retreats and Forums are
some of the most important events that
AIDS New Brunswick does for the PHAcommunity. Originally,
they were funded by
Health Canada and
the (AIDS Community
Acon Program) ACAP.These organizaons
put a special emphasis
on skill building and
knowledge transfer,
so the bulk of theevents were spent
in seminars and presentaons. Aer
these organizaons stopped funding
the events, AIDS New Brunswick was
forced to nd other ways to fund them,such as the Red Tie Aair. The format
of the events is now far looser. There
is sll an emphasis on skill building,
PHA Retreats and
Forums
In 2000 AIDSNew Bruns-
wick distribut-
ed over 3,100
condoms, and
30,939 in 2010
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but now there is more me for PHAs to
network and talk to each other. As Ted
Gaudet points out, New Brunswick is
very rural, so how oen do you get to
chat with someone from Edmunston, or
Bathurst, or someone from St. Stephen?The retreats and forums are a very rare
opportunity for the PHA community to
come together, share informaon, and
grow as a community.
Last year when the forum was can-celled, that really hit me hard. Then
Jocelyn [Paul] died in March very
suddenly....I said this is enough. We
need to make sure that this does not
fail again this year, we really need to dosomething about this fall forum to make
it happen - Anne Moore
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AIDS Walk
The AIDS Walk started with the Cana-
dian AIDS Society (CAS). They were try-
ing to spread the AIDS Walk movement
across Canada to the local AIDS groups.
AIDS New Brunswick partnered with CAS
and Frederictons rst AIDS Walk was in
1993. Aer a period of me with CAS,
AIDS New Brunswick noced a sharp
decline in the parcipants of the AIDS
Walk. In order to combat this, AIDS New
Brunswick decided to partner with the
Stephen Lewis foundaon with the hope
that by partnering with a high prolefoundaon like Stephen Lewis, the AIDS
Walk would see a higher turnout. The
Stephen Lewis foundaon at the me
was being very heavily publicized for its
work with AIDS in Africa. Also during thisme, organizaon of the AIDS Walk shi-
ed more heavily to St. Thomas Univer-
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sity, as
main
propo-
nents
of part-
neringwith
Ste-
phen
Lewis
were closely aliated with the school.During its me being partnered with
the Stephen Lewis foundaon, the
AIDS Walk experienced unprecedented
popularity, and the event quickly grew
in size. As part of its partnership withStephen Lewis, half of the proceeds of
the march would go to the foundaon,
which in turn sent that money for aid
in Africa. This spulaon was a prob-
lem with many PHAs in the communi-
AIDS Walk
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ty, who thought that it would be beer
to have all of the money go to help
those locally instead of sending half
of it to Africa. At the same me, there
was cricism that the walk was no lon-ger about AIDS prevenon, and lacked
community involvement. This cricism
stemmed
from the fact
that the walk
had become
dominated
primar-
ily with
students,
and outside
community
involvement was dropping. Despite
students being a major target in AIDS
awareness and the large turnout that
they brought, many people in the
2006 a cookbook was
developed for the
PHA community. In
2010 a revised edion
came out.
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community felt that the AIDS Walk was
turning more into a student event than
a commu-
nity one.
Also, due
in part to
the fact
that it was
primarily
students
who par-
cipated,
the AIDS
Walk was
not making very much money for the
organizaon, which only further ex-acerbated the situaon with the PHA
community. In 2008, due to PHA ob-
jecons and disappoinng fundraising
returns, AIDS New Brunswick decided
to no longer partner with the Stephen
The Jocelyn Paul Me-
morial Skills Building
fund for PHAs was
started in 2004 in or-
der to allow clients toaend naonal skill
building events.
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Lewis foundaon,
which led to a falling
out with St. Thomas
the subsequent year.
The AIDS Walk was
relocated away from
the school. Aerwards
AIDS New Brunswick
went back to partner-
ing with CAS. Aer
ending the partnership
with Stephen Lewis, parcipaon and
publicity for the event dropped sig-
nicantly, especially among students.
Due to the dwindling parcipaon, the
AIDS Walk made about as much mon-ey for the organizaon as when it had
been partnered
with
Stephen Lewis.
Memorial Tree
in Odell Park
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Procalamation Scandal
In 1998, AIDS New Brunswick made local
headlines because of a scandal involv-
ing the local government and gay pride.
Mayor Brad Woodside was asked to
give a welcoming address to AIDS Walk
parcipants that year. He was unable
to aend due to family commitments,
so instead Councilor Joel Richardson
volunteered to parcipate and give the
address on behalf of the mayor. Prior
to this me, Mayor Woodside was very
hesitant to allow a proclamaon of gay
pride days in Fredericton and had beensteadfastly blocking the issue for a de-
cade. Two days before the AIDS Walk,
Councilor Richardson was quoted by the
Daily Gleaner in a story called Procla-
maon Debate Lives backing mayorWoodsides beliefs against a proclama-
on for gay pride days, and saying: Why
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couldnt a group like the Hells Angels,
why couldnt they have a Hells Angels
Day? Its their right and choice. Both
he and mayor Woodside wanted to
simply remove the instuon of proc-
lamaons altogether. AIDS New Bruns-
wick and
the gay
community
were ex-
tremely up-
set that the
councilor
had com-
pared gay
people to aknown criminal organizaon, and AIDS
New Brunswick asked the Councilor
not to aend the AIDS Walk. Despite
this, Councilor Richardson did aend
the AIDS Walk, but was not asked to
In 2010 Mayor Brad
Woodside aended
the Fredericton AIDS
Walk for the rst
me
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speak. He felt that he was being dis-
criminated against, and that his views
on the proclamaon and gay pride
had no bearing on his views on HIV/
AIDS and the AIDS Walk. He stated that
AIDS New Brunswick was being big-oted against heterosexual people. The
Execuve Director at the me, Elaine
Sussey, issued a statement to the press
in which she stated I would like to
emphacally state that HIV does notdiscriminate nor does AIDS New Bruns-
wick. Our reacon would have been
the same if discriminatory remarks
had been made toward any group we
serve. From the beginning, AIDS NewBrunswick, like all AIDS organizaons,
had a focus on gay men. The reason-
ing behind this is because they are at
the greatest risk. However, AIDS New
Brunswick was not founded to only
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Page 42
serve the gay community. Jim Goltz,
the rst president of AIDS New
Brunswick, concerning the founding
of the organizaon, stated that we
decided to create a community-based
organizaon with representaon from
all corners of the community.
Councilor Richardson publicly
demanded an apology from the
organizaon, or he threatened that he
would le a human-rights complaint
against them because he was
discriminated against by not being
allowed to speak at the AIDS Walk.
Elaine Sussey stated to the press that
AIDS New Brunswick wouldnot apologize.
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Page 43
Were not discriminang against him
in terms of providing him with any
kind of public service. If Richardson
has a need for AIDS educaon or sup-
port, the organizaon will be there
for him. But when it comes to eventsAIDS New Brunswick hosts, it can in-
vite whomever it likes to speak. Thats
not a public service. - Elaine Sussey
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Page 44
World AIDS Day Breakfast
World AIDS Day has been commemorated
around the globe since 1988. In 2002 thethree New Brunswick AIDS organizaons
began hosng a breakfast on World AIDS
Day. This was started by the Execuve
Directors of each organizaon: Haley Flaro
from AIDS New Brunswick, Julie Dingwellfrom AIDS Saint John, and Debbie War-
ren from SIDA AIDS Moncton. When the
Lieutenant Governor Hermngilde Chais-
son became the honourary patron of the
New Brunswick AIDS organizaons, hehosted the event. The breakfast is by in-
vitaon only and it allows the organiza-
ons a chance to raise HIV/AIDS aware-
ness among policy makers. When Graydon
Nicholas became Lieutenant Governor,he connued being a patron for the local
AIDS organizaons.
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Page 45
From an early me in AIDS New Bruns-
wick, the organizaon was involvedwith the North
of the prov-
ince, spe-
cically with
Bathurst. An
early board
member
headed up
a small vol-
unteer pres-
ence in the
area. The presence was eventually
lost, but in 2007 AIDS New Brunswick
received the funding to hire someone
part-me in order to open an oce
and work with the francophone com-
munity. An oce was established in
the Bathurst Youth Centre. In 2009,
Northern Expansion
2009 AIDS NewBrunswick received
the MAC AIDS Fund
Grant for the Posive
Nutrion Program
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Page 46
AIDS New Brunswick was approached
by the government to work with the
francophone youth in the north of
the province. Because of this, AIDS
New Brunswick was able to hire an-
other part-me sta member in the
north, who would work primarily with
the youth. The rst hired was Tanya
Amberman. However, since receiv-
ing funding for another part-me
sta member, AIDS New Brunswick in
Bathurst has varied from having two
part-me sta members and one full-
me. In 2010, the oce was moved to
the Keystone Development building.
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Ted Gaudet is
AIDS New Bruns-
wicks longestserving member,
having joined in
1993, and along
with James Lord
Edwards is one ofthe major spokes-
persons for the
PHA community.
He was diagnosed
with HIV in Vancouver in 1988. Aerreturning to the Marimes, it was sug-
gested by his family that he contact
AIDS New Brunswick, which he joined
as a client. He became the chair of the
PHA Commiee the following year.
AIDS New Brunswick had frequently
had problems pung a face to the
virus because of the social sgma
Ted Gaudet
Ted Gaudent
and Elaine Sussey
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Page 48
involved in disclosing HIV status. In
1994, he went public and allowed AIDS
New Brunswick to use his face.
I discussed it with my family and
made the decision that the only way
to move forward is to start pung my
face to HIV, so I went public and had
CTV come and do a live interview and
I talked about being HIV posive and
The PHA Commiee.
He was employed on a short-term
contract to organize and coordinate a
fundraising event for AIDS New Bruns-
wicks 10th Anniversary in 1996. Alsoin 1996, the PHA community broke o
from AIDS New Brunswick and started
the PHA Network of New Brunswick.
Ted Gaudet acted as its rst president.
When the network broke up, Gaudet,
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Page 49
along with the rest of the PHA commu-
nity returned to the organizaon. Hebecame a board member for the rst
me in 1999, and he has subsequently
sat on the board three more mes:
1994-5, 2002-03 and 2010-present.
Gaudet is currently acve in the PHA
community, acng as a spokesman for
AIDS New Brunswick and as the chair
of The Health
and Wellness
Commiee.
Ted Gaudets Prizes:
2002 Medal Recipient:Queens Jubilee Medal for
Community Work
2001 Medal Recipient:
UN Internaonal Year of theVolunteer: New Brunswick
2010 City of Fredericton
Unsung Hero Award
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Page 50
This is dedicated to the memory of
those who have passed awayas a result of HIV/AIDS in
the last 25 years.
If your loved one passed away from this disease and
you would like AIDS NB to commemorate their life
in our newsletter, please contact ____________.
In Memorandum
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Page 51
Special Thanks
AIDS New Brunswick would like to
thank the following contributorsfor their assistance in assembling
this history project:
Alana LawsonNick Sco
Diedre Smith
Jennifer Dion
Mahew Smith
Ted Gaudet
Grace Gey
Margaret Dykeman
Gayle MacDonald
Haley FlaroJim Goltz
Samire Ismaili
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Page 52
The 25th anniversary history project is
meant to commemorate the rich past of
the organizaon and its contribuon to
the AIDS Movement. We wanted to raise
the prole of the organizaon and raise
awareness of what this organizaons vol-
unteers and sta have accomplished high-
lighng their value to the community.
Addionally, the history project tells a
story of struggle on mulple fronts, some-thing universal to not-for-prot organiza-
ons: ghng to survive in an unpredict-
able, occasionally hosle environment on
one front and ghng for social change in
order to serve community, on another.
A Final Word
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It is an opportunity for the organizaon
and the community to take stock of what
has been accomplished and to take note
of where the organizaon has come from
and how we want to handle things mov-
ing forward. It allows us to see who we
are. - Nick Sco
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The Sta of AIDS
New BrunswickFredericton Oce
Jennifer Dion, Matthew Smith, Nick Scott, and Diedre Smith
65 Brunswick Street
Fredericton, NBphone (506) 459-7518