ACT UP TORONTO

ACT UP Toronto (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power)
ACT UP Toronto is a diverse collective of individuals united in love and determined to end HIV and AIDS through militant direct action and self-empowerment. WE ARE NOT FUNDED BY DRUG COMPANIES!!
LIFE IS ON YOUR SIDE!
We dispute HIV as the cause of a growing list of old diseases that have been officially categorized as AIDS. Our challenge to the HIV hypothesis should not be interpreted as an excuse to ignore symptoms of illness, or to engage in activities known to compromise health. Decisions regarding health issues should be based on a thorough evaluation of facts including the fact that people who test positive and remain healthy vastly outnumber HIV positives who become ill and die.
STOP Pharmaceutical Colonialism!
Michael Ellner Video
Beating AIDS denialism EDITORIAL - Matt Mills / Xtra / Thursday, July 19, 2007 Full story here
AIDS Critics Put Up Posters - Aug 16, 2006 - Xtra Magazine Toronto - Paul Gallant
The group ACT UP Toronto - an AIDS dissident group that's not to be confused with earlier ACT UP groups that lobbied for government action on HIV/AIDS - has put up posters around the village this month, claiming that HIV does not cause AIDS.The posters, which went up at the start of the International AIDS Conference which Toronto is hosting. One poster claims "AIDS drugs are toxic" and shows pictures of people who have physical deformities allegedly caused by AIDS medications. "Don't support the corrupt AIDS industry, it's time to rethink what we know about AIDS," it reads.
The group HEAL (Health Education AIDS Liaison) Toronto has questioned the cause of AIDS and how to respond to it. Heal member Carl Strygg says he doesn't know who put up the posters. He says the group split a while back over tactics like these, with the ACT UP Toronto people going there own way.
"I can't say that the posters are really bridge-building," says Strygg. "That's not the way I like to work. That approach is why I have limited my involvement with the AIDS dissident movement. Shouting at people that HIV does not cause AIDS is not going to help somebody struggling with the illness."
Strygg says he's talked to several people attending the conference. But mostly he's not impressed by what he's heard. "It sounds like any other AIDS conference. Lots of bluster, not many lives saved."
Healthy skepticism Condom Country campaign rides a wave of controversy - Fab Magazine Toronto - July 5 2001 - John Kennedy
Full story here
If advertising campaigns are judged by the amount of attention and discussion they generate then the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT) has a winner on its hands. The organization's new "Welcome to Condom Country" campaign - designed to encourage safer sex among gay men - is making headlines all over North America, resulting in more exposure than ACT could ever have imagined.
Equally critical of ACT's message and its timing is Rob Steffler of ACTUP Toronto. "If HIV is not on the rise - which it looks like from their own data that it's not - then the whole campaign is a lie," he says. "In a way it's sort of sad. If, in fact, it's decreasing or staying the same why can't ACT celebrate that instead of associating an increase in disease with homosexuality during Pride Week?"
ACT supporters insist there is some good coming out of all the controversy surrounding the campaign - gay men are once again talking about safer sex and condom use. But critics disagree. "Gay men are always talking about condoms anyway. It's always an issue when you're having a sexual experience," says Rob Steffler of ACTUP. "There's always some sort of negotiating going on whether you choose to use them or not and I don't think this campaign is going to make people talk again. We're already saturated. You're never going to get everybody to use condoms all the time - that's impossible."
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"The world we live in: doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, psychiatrist destroy minds, scientists destroy truth, major media destroy information, religions destroy spirituality and goverments destroy freedom."
Michael Ellner (HEAL Health Education AIDS Liaison NYC) ------------------------------------------------------------ -----------
It's time to stop lying about AIDS- BY SKY GILBERT - Toronto - Eye Magazine
Full story here
Something interesting happened in San Francisco recently. ACT UP has changed the meaning of its acronym. Why should you care? Because a new chapter of ACT UP may be coming to Toronto, and they've got some ideas that might just rock your world.
ACT UP -- a radical AIDS group that appeared late in the 20th century -- once had ideals very much like Toronto's present-day AIDS Action Now (AAN). The acronym ACT UP stood for AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. San Francisco's ACT UP and Toronto's AAN worked hard to get new AIDS drugs for gay men. That's understandable. Given the incredible sloth of government agencies, it was important to put these drugs promising miracle cures directly into the hands of those afflicted.
HIV IS A LIE! Tee shirts are available