The founding director of the HIV Psychiatry program at St. Michael’s Hospital, Dr. Mark Halman has for 20 years been training and inspiring educators, physicians and health care and AIDS service workers in the fields of HIV/AIDS and mental health. His innovative approach to education provides excellent training experiences for students while ensuring that patients are cared for with dignity and in an environment that affirms diversity. This award recognizes Dr. Halman’s passion, innovation. dedication and collaborative leadership—locally, nationally and internationally—in advancing the fields of HIV/AIDS and mental health.

When Moncton, New Brunswick native Michael Wartman made the brave decision to publicly declare his HIV status in order to lessen stigma and discrimination in his home community, his family rallied in support of his efforts. Michael passed away in 2000, and his family continues their activism in his memory. This award recognizes the Wartman family’s pioneering leadership in proudly advocating for the rights and dignity of people living with HIV/AIDS; and their ongoing compassionate service in supporting the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS, and their loved ones.

John Plater was a tireless champion for human rights, even at great personal cost. A hemophiliac, Plater learned to thrive with the disorder and from an early age became a spokesperson. Infected with HIV and hepatitis C in through blood products in the early 1980s, Plater worked to ensure the safety of the blood system. Even before becoming a lawyer he helped to lead the call for the Krever inquiry and to obtain compensation for people who had been infected by blood and blood products. He was a champion for access to emerging HIV treatments and later worked to advocate for access to organ transplants for people who are HIV positive, as well as decriminalization of HIV. Plater held volunteer leadership roles at Hemophilia Ontario and the Canadian Hemophilia Society, the Ontario Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS, the Ontario Hepatitis C Task Force, and the Ministerial Advisory Council on the Federal Initiative on HIV/AIDS. He chaired the HIV/AIDS Community Advisory Panel of St. Michael’s for several years and was a board member of the HIV/AIDS Legal Clinic of Ontario. He worked with Canadian Blood Services on countless initiatives and was a member of their National Liaison Committee. Active in his local church, he looked after sheep, horses and chickens on a small hobby farm in the Beaver Valley with his wife Karen and mother Margaret. John Plater died in 2012 from complications caused by HIV and hepatitis C.

Notes on the recipients from the speech delivered by Robert Forsey, Chair, The Casey Awards 2014:

“Rick Mercer, Canada’s foremost political satirist, is one of our social justice champions, who has proudly shone a light on Casey House and the cause of HIV/AIDS. He is also a champion of many other issues such as fighting against malaria in developing nations, fighting for the rights of the LGBTQ community through his work with PFLAG, and ensuring that people in isolated communities get access to health care through transportation with the charity Hope Air.

But I think many of us will recognize that behind many a good man is a good man. And that’s where Gerald comes in. Rick may be the public face of this political satire and social justice empire – but as co-creator and Executive Producer of The Rick Mercer Report, Gerald Lunz is very much responsible for creating the platform from which Rick makes magic happen. So as a committee we are delighted to honour both of them for their extraordinary support.

On behalf of the committee, I would like to extend warmest congratulations. The values and actions that you demonstrate in your work, shining a light on the wonderful – and sometimes, not so wonderful – aspects of Canada and our global society are an inspiration to all of us.”

From the tribute to Ron Rosenes by Brian Shackleton, Chair of The Casey Award Committee:

On behalf of the Casey Awards Committee, I’m very pleased to announce and congratulate Ron Rosenes as this year’s recipient of The Casey Award.

The Casey Award was was named in tribute to June Callwood, a founder of Casey House who said, and I quote: “If any of you happen to see an injustice, you are no longer a spectator, you are a participant and you have an obligation to do something.”

When our committee considered who should receive this year’s award, it was extraordinarily evident that Ron Rosenes truly qualifies – he lives and breathes June’s wise statement.

Recently appointed to the Order of Canada, Ron Rosenes is a long-time community volunteer, HIV activist and social justice advocate.

Ron bravely came out publicly about his HIV status over 25 years ago, at a time when the fear and stigma around AIDS were immense.

He has remained a stalwart volunteer in the community ever since, fighting inequality, and most particularly advocating for the inclusion of people living with HIV/AIDS in planning and delivering care across Canada and the world.

Ron’s involvement and accomplishments in the HIV /AIDS community are truly extraordinary.

To read a list of those many, many accomplishments would take a very long time, so I will skip to only the highlights: From chairing the AIDS Walk in the early 1990s, Ron went on to serve as Board Chair of the AIDS Committee of Toronto from 1995 to 1998, and was appointed as ACT’s first Honorary Director. He is a long-time member of AIDS ACTION NOW and a founding Board Member of the Sherbourne Health Centre, and has served in various leading roles at the International AIDS Society Conferences world-wide since serving as Toronto’s vice-chair in 2006. He conducts pioneering research with the Ontario HIV Treatment Network, and with the HIV/AIDS Research Advisory Committee for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. And if that’s not enough, Ron holds an appointment to the Ontario Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS to the Ontario Minister of Health. He also spent 14 years as Vice Chair of the Canadian Treatment Action Council, advancing treatment both in Canada and internationally, and continues as a member of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network’s Advocates Circle.

Ron continues his work with several research teams advancing understanding of diverse issues affecting people with HIV, including aging, the justice system, co-infections, the social determinants of health, and the ongoing search for a cure.

Ron has been a longstanding member of the Casey House family, and follows in a long line of exceptional Casey Award recipients. I invite you to please join me in congratulating Ron for this well-earned and most deserved award.

[Photo, L-R: Ron Rosenes, Brian Shackleton]

This year, the recipient of The Casey Award 2016 is Art Zoccole, a devoted HIV/AIDS advocate and leader within Canada’s Aboriginal community.

The award was presented at the Casey House & Casey House Foundation annual meeting, June 22 at The 519.

From the tribute to Art Zoccole by Brian Shackleton, chair of the Casey Award committee:

On behalf of the 2016 Casey Awards committee, I’m pleased to announce the recipient of this year’s Casey Award, Art Zoccole.

Art is the recipient of the Casey Award for his devotion to HIV/AIDS advocacy and his leadership within Canada’s Aboriginal community.

The Casey Award celebrates leadership in the fields of HIV/AIDS and social justice, which accurately describes Art’s life work. Art has been involved in HIV/AIDS advocacy since the 1980s. At that time gay men with AIDS were reluctant to find support from their Aboriginal communities when they fell ill, they were fearful of sharing their status and having to acknowledge their sexuality. And for those who died, acceptance was also difficult; some communities mistakenly believed that HIV was transmissible after death and were reluctant to accept the bodies of those who perished from AIDS.

Seeing a need for more resources for Aboriginal people who were living with HIV/AIDS Art co-founded 2-Spirited People of the First Nation in 1989, a Toronto based non-profit for Aboriginal people who carry male and female spirits and identify as LGBTQ. Their programs include HIV/AIDS education, outreach, prevention, support and counselling. The organization has been instrumental in providing support for those in the Aboriginal community, and has been at the forefront of raising awareness of two-spirited people. Art serves as executive director amongst his many additional roles in HIV/AIDS education and advocacy.

Art has his hand in all aspects of activism: he is involved in research, a member of task forces, advisory councils, speaks publicly at conferences, chaired the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network, volunteers his expertise as a leadership volunteer and promotes education. Art has worked to combat stigma and reduce discrimination of diverse populations within the Aboriginal community, discrimination that is faced within and from beyond that community. He believes strongly that resources and support is most effective when it comes from within the Aboriginal community and works collaboratively to make them available.

Art describes his work as “having a voice in his community to remind people that this disease is still very much present and that more work needs to be done.” Casey House is in full support of that sentiment, recognizing that HIV/AIDS is an urgent health problem; one that needs as many voices as possible.

Art, thank you for using your voice, for making yourself heard, for speaking up for all those who are living with HIV, and particularly for those who are Aboriginal.

Please join me in congratulating Art Zoccole on his well-deserved award.

This year, the recipient of The Casey Award is Glen Brown, for his many years of tireless and passionate devotion to HIV/AIDS advocacy.

The award will be presented at the Casey House & Casey House Foundation annual meeting, June 13, 2017.

Glen Brown was a tireless and passionate HIV/AIDS advocate for almost 30 years. He joined AIDS Action Now!, a pioneering activist collective, shortly after its founding in 1987. He quickly became co-chair of the organization and, among many other accomplishments, was instrumental in getting the Province of Ontario to establish the Trillium Drug Program, the province’s first program to cover catastrophic drug costs. In 1989, along with Quebec and US-based groups, he and his fellow activists successfully demanded the meaningful inclusion of people living with HIV in the 1989 International AIDS Conference, and all the conferences that followed. These are just a few of his many contributions and accomplishments.

As director of programs and services and general manager at the Community AIDS Treatment Information Exchange (CATIE), he developed the organization into the foremost source of HIV/AIDS information in Canada for people living with HIV. His work affected the lives of tens of thousands of Ontarians, and he remained active throughout his life on issues that affected communities living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. He was an incredibly strategic thinker and generous mentor whose work informed that of the many activists and advocates who followed. He will be remembered as someone who fought tirelessly against oppression in many guises and will be deeply missed, but never forgotten.

It was in the context of the AIDS epidemic, when people were dying quickly, in large numbers and alone, that Dan Chisholm, a young RN working at St. Michael’s Hospital, heard of Casey House and joined us shortly after the doors opened in March 1988. He needed to go where clients would be well cared for in their final hours and days. Dan became a member of the team who created an atmosphere where people with HIV/AIDS found acceptance, support and hands-on care; where clients and their chosen family could relax and feel welcome; where dying was a peaceful experience rather than a lonely one.

At that time, clients were admitted a day or two, or just a few hours, prior to their death. This intensive caring took its toll on the clinical team; however, Dan felt he was making a difference, not only to clients, but also to their partners and other members of the community.

Dan will tell you how well he remembers the first client who recovered enough to walk out of Casey House; ARVs were making a difference. This new phenomenon required a different type of nursing. Dan, already an excellent palliative nurse, learned how to support individuals living with HIV as a chronic illness, to manage the systemic and often debilitating components of having a severely depressed immune system. He learned about the disease process, about medications and how they were affecting clients, about how difficult it was to live with HIV, the impacts of aging with HIV and long-term exposure to treatments.

When mental health and substance use became prominent issues for clients, Dan once again enhanced and grew his skill set. Dan, an excellent palliative and then medical surgical nurse became an excellent mental health and substance use nurse. He modified his knowledge, skills and abilities to become a nurse who truly demonstrates the definition of the words ‘holistic care’ as he integrated bio–psycho-social concepts into his practice.

Dan now delivers a wide variety of care: palliative care in one room, chest tubes on a client transferred from an acute-care hospital’s ICU in another, or supporting someone who is homeless, alone and looking for ways of coping with their trauma other than using substances. Dan is a nurse who embraces change; learning and growing as clients’ needs have shifted. Dan mentors new staff, students and his peers so they too can move with the changes we all face in health care. In his role as permanent charge nurse, which he has occupied for over a decade, Dan is the constant, the knower, the facilitator, the mentor, the supporter and most importantly the example of nursing at its finest.

Dan is both celebrating his 30th year at Casey House and retiring this week. Looking back on his time at Casey House it is easy to celebrate Dan and his contributions. Although he started working in a large hospital, Dan dedicated his career to a small organization, serving some of our most vulnerable citizens. Dan has remained committed to our client population despite phenomenal change over the past three decades. Dan is a nurse who leads by example; he has assisted countless individuals to live with their HIV diagnosis, through the peaks and valleys of their health care journey, and ultimately honouring their lives by caring for them as they died. Any nurse can only hope to have accomplished so much and affected so many throughout their career.