‘You were a weapon. People suffered, people died’: Parole board denies HIV-positive dangerous offender Johnson Aziga’s bid for freedom
It took a mere 10 minutes for the parole board to reject Johnson Aziga’s bid for deliverance from prison. He is convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of two women and eight counts of aggravated sexual assault for infecting 11 intimate partners with HIV, without ever disclosing his HIV-positive status or taking any precautions.
By Rosie DiManno Star Columnist
December 12, 2023
Johnson Aziga, a designated dangerous offender, was convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of two women and eight counts of aggravated sexual assault for infecting 11 intimate partners with the virus that can cause AIDS, without ever disclosing his HIV-positive status or taking any precautions.
Hamilton Spectator
It took a mere 10 minutes of deliberation for the parole board to reject — anyway, anyhow — Johnson Aziga’s bid for deliverance from prison.
Which was to be expected for a designated dangerous offender, convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of two women and eight counts of aggravated sexual assault for infecting 11 intimate partners with the virus that can cause AIDS, without ever disclosing his HIV-positive status or taking any precautions.
Two of those women subsequently suffered “horrible and despairing deaths’’ due to complications from AIDS, as described by the Ontario Court of Appeal. Seven others tested positive for HIV. While it could not be established with certainty that Aziga was the individual who transmitted the virus to all of them, each had tested positive for an HIV strain traced to a common source — the HIV 1-A strain that is rare in North America.
Aziga is from Uganda. He was the first person in Canada ever convicted of murder for fatally infecting partners with HIV.
A former research analyst and statistician for Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General, Aziga had initially been found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of the two women after a six-month trial in 2009. Those convictions were quashed on appeal in January, downgraded to manslaughter after the three-judge panel found that the trial judge had failed to properly instruct the jury on whether Aziga had the required intent to commit murder when he had unprotected sex with the victims. That court upheld the dangerous offender designation, rendered in 2011, which carries an indeterminate prison sentence. Manslaughter means life in prison but parole eligibility seven years after the date of arrest.
Less than a year later, Aziga got his first shot at parole on Tuesday. And was immediately shot down.
“It is a negative decision, I’m not going to keep you in suspense,’’ said Kathleen Gowanlock, one of the two panel members. “The board is denying day parole, the board is denying full parole.’’
Any form of parole, including escorted temporary passes, had also been disapproved by Aziga’s parole officer and the psychiatrist who conducted a risk assessment, both concluding Aziga wasn’t ready for conditional release. Though he’s completed the sexual offender program and several other programs directed at understanding boundaries, victim impact and empathy, he requires further undertakings before a staged process of returning to the community, the parole officer told the hearing, held at the Bath Institution near Kingston.
Over the two-and-a-half-hour hearing, Aziga, who represented himself, argued that continued imprisonment wasn’t necessary for rehabilitation. “ Beyond punishment for the crime, basically,’’ he said. In addition, he continued, the rehabilitative progression from behind prison walls would not be conducive to the community adjustment he needs, particularly because the science of HIV and public attitudes have evolved immensely since his arrest. “Nothing’s going to happen here. It’s been years. And right now the communities are better prepared … than in here.’’
But the panel also heard that Aziga has twice in the last three years been cited for prison violations directly related to sexual urges he’s been unable to control: In 2020, he was found with naked pictures of women (Aziga said another inmate had stuffed them in his pocket) and this past August prison guards found four binders of explicit pornography in his cell, which he’d been collecting since 2011.
Aziga countered that he’s been attempting to manage his sexual energy. “I’m trying to redirect that energy. I had the choice of having sex or masturbate. Now they’re saying it’s wrong for me to do it.’’
It was, arguably, a relevant point. Aziga claimed no one has ever told him how often it would be reasonable to masturbate or if he had gone overboard.
“Yes, I do still have desire for a woman. I’m not gay. I think my sexual urges are controllable by me.’’
They were not, by any measuring stick, controllable back in 1996, when — separated from his wife, father of three — he was diagnosed with HIV. Despite receiving extensive counselling on safe sex practices and twice being issued with public health orders compelling him to disclose his HIV status to any potential sex partners, Aziga continued to withhold that information while, frankly, fornicating unsuspecting women to death and illness, outright lying when asked and refusing to wear a condom. The two women who died left behind anguishing videotaped testimony that was played at his trial.
At the time, Aziga was not taking medication to reduce his viral load and ability to transmit the virus because he didn’t like the drugs. All those women were infected between 2000 and 2003. Indeed, on the day of his arrest in September 2003, his then-girlfriend was unaware that Aziga was HIV-positive.
Under Canadian law, people with HIV or AIDS don’t have to disclose that information before having vaginal or anal sex if a condom is used and they have a “low’’ viral load. In the past year, the federal government has held public consultations on reforming the law around disclosure, with doctors and many in the activist community asserting that disclosure perpetuates and amplifies stigma. In 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that disclosure of HIV status previous to sexual activity was required where there is a realistic possibility of transmission. If there is no realistic possibility of transmission, failure to disclose does not constitute a crime.
At trial and again on Tuesday, Aziga, 67, maintained that his culture as a Black man from Africa where AIDS sufferers are ostracized, coupled with a string of personal traumas, including a son with autism, his collapsing marriage, even the strength of his daily work commute from Hamilton to Toronto, had contributed to his harmful behaviour. Also mentioning alcohol abuse as a factor, Aziga claimed he was insufficiently aware of the virus’s potential impact on others.
“At that time, I didn’t know what it was. Who would do stuff like that? Definitely not the way I was raised up.’’
Except he was explicitly informed by public health nurses and the two orders he ignored, even refusing to provide officials with the names of his sexual partners so they could seek treatment immediately.
“Your situation was novel, we understand that,’’ noted Gowanlock. “But if you were told very clearly and you were subject to public health orders, that was a pretty clear directive that you’re putting other people at risk for serious health compromises and two women died, in fact. You weren’t a young man when these things happened, you were educated. So in terms of who you are, that you were able to overlook this and put your own interest ahead of everybody else, how do you understand that, looking back on who you used to be and who you are now?’’
Alcohol, repeated Aziga, though he struggled to give a more nuanced answer.
Robert Sicard, the other panel member, leaned into that point. “You weren’t drunk 24-7. You understood these orders. But you chose not to follow them. You got sick in ’96, you had multiple partners, you were served with an order, you were served with a second order. And you still didn’t disclose.
“Today you are leading a normal life, as normal as can be under the circumstances. Two of the victims are dead, a number of others continue to suffer. How does that make you feel, how does that make you think about you deserving freedom, when they have no freedom? Help me to understand that.’’
Aziga: “I’m not dodging that. The fear, the fear. Today it’s very easy. I would stand up there and shout: My name is Johnson Aziga. I am HIV-positive. But we’re talking 20 years ago.’’
That didn’t go over well with the panel, either. “There are many forms of weapons,’’ said Sicard. “There are guns and knives, people suffer, people die. You were a weapon. People suffered, people died.’’
Dangerous offenders serving an indeterminate sentence can generally apply for parole every two years.
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Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno.
Source: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/you-were-a-weapon-people-suffered-people-died-parole-board-denies-hiv-positive-dangerous-offender/article_65ec5a0a-993d-11ee-91d4-0b4a25414446.html
"Reproduced with permission - Toronto Star"
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