GUELPH POLITICAST #105 - Sarah Wilmer, Women's Community Development Co-ordinator, ARCH

Let's get the obvious out of the way: Yes, there are sex workers in Guelph. Any time the topic is bridged in the corporate media, it comes with this strain of shock that such a thing is happening in our own backyards. Of course it is. Perhaps that's why sex workers find themselves particularly vulnerable to violence. Hear no evil, see no evil, right?

Remember World AIDS Day Tomorrow

Marking Worlds AIDS Day tomorrow, I thought I would repost this video I made in 2011/2012 for the Guelph Volunteer Centre and the AIDS Committee of Guelph. When I was making it a few years ago, it was the 30th anniversary of the identification of HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS; 30 years ago from today in 1984, conditions were getting close to crisis proportion as there was still a lot unknown about the disease, and there was still no sign of a treatment or a cure. A lot's changed in the last three decades, and looking back to when I made this video, I'm still humbled by the experience and realizing both how far we've come since those early days, and how far we still have to go. The AIDS Committee of Guelph is now the HIV/AIDS Resources and Community Health (ARCH), but they're still doing good work for those in our community with HIV, as well as promoting education and sexual health. You can watch the five minute video below.