Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society
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David Crowe, President Phone: +1-403-289-6609 Fax: +1-403-289-6658 Email: David.Crowe@aras.ab.ca Kathleen Newell, Treasurer		Box 61037, Kensington Postal Outlet Calgary, Alberta T2N 4S6 Canada			Office Phone: +1-403-220-0129 Email: aras@aras.ab.ca Web: aras.ab.ca
Rethinkers	Quotes	AZT	HAART	HIV Tests	Transmission	Library

Annual Report: 2002

The Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society was formed in February, 1999.

Communication

The society continues to maintain a phone number with voice mail (+1-403-220-0129), a post office box (Box 61037, Kensington Postal Outlet, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4S6, Canada), this website (aras.ab.ca) and email (aras@aras.ab.ca).

We maintain informal links with AIDS dissident organizations around the world, notably HEAL (especially the Toronto chapter) and Alive & Well in Los Angeles.

David Crowe, President of the society had several articles on HIV/AIDS published during the year. redflagsweekly.com published articles on Sophie Brassard, the 'Left' and AIDS, HIV and Breastfeeding. A number of articles were also submitted to Alive magazine on health topics, including one on malnutrition (published in their March, 2003 issue) that mentioned how the definition of AIDS in Africa (‘Bangui’) was very similar in its non-specific symptoms to the effects of malnutrition,

David participated in the creation of a position paper on HIV/AIDS in Africa at the G6B alternative summit in June 2002. He was tolerated only grudgingly when it became apparent that he wanted to discuss the basic science of HIV/AIDS whereas the others wanted to get antiretroviral drugs into African bodies.

The society has republished the book “Mother to Child Transmission of HIV and its Prevention with AZT and Nevirapine”. This makes the book more cheaply available to people in North America. The ‘Perth Group’ of scientists who wrote the book are in Australia, which adds greatly to the cost of distribution. This book is an excellent reference for people interested in comprehensive critiques of the basic science underlying the HIV=AIDS paradigm.

Our website was established in June, 2000 and generally receives over 1,000 visits per month. We continued to mail out books, copies of articles and other papers upon request.

We were greatly saddened to learn of the recent death of Robert Johnston of HEAL Toronto, one of the leading AIDS dissidents in Canada, and the sixth person to join our society. Sophie Brassard, a victim of harassment because she refused to accept AIDS medications for her children, also died, in September, 2002.

Censorship

The Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society faced several examples of censorship during this year. In June, 2002 the ‘ringmaster’ of the “HIV/AIDS Network - POZ Net 2002” removed our site from this ‘web ring’. The same month David was asked by the organizer of the health portion of the G6B summit (Dr. Saren Azer) to leave, even though this same person had invited David in the first place, and had been made aware of his views. The reason was because David insisted on questioning the link between HIV and AIDS, the definition of AIDS used in Africa, etc. After the end of our 2002/2003 year, University of Calgary campus security was called to a meeting because David refused to stop asking questions of panelists at a Global AIDS Action Group meeting. A letter to the Canadian Medical Association Journal submitted in January, 2003 was also rejected, even though it pointed out clear factual errors in an article on HIV/AIDS in this journal which claimed that declines in AIDS in Canada “correspond exactly” with the introduction of antiretroviral drugs and multidrug regimens in the 1990s.

Membership

121 people are registered as members. We have continued our policy of free memberships. About 20% are from Alberta, 20% from the rest of Canada and the remainder from other countries.

Financial

The treasurer of the society is Kathleen DeWitt Newell. At the end of our 2002 fiscal year (January 31, 2003), the Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society bank account held CDN$833.18. There were no other significant assets. The major income was from various donations from individuals and corporations and reimbursements for copies of “What if Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?” or other publications. The major expenses were the Post Office Box (about $75/year), telephone (about $50/month) and website, email and domain name maintenance fees (www.aras.ab.ca, about CDN$350/year). More details are available in our financial statements (downloadable in Adobe Acrobat PDF format).

Education

One of our most important roles has been in education. We have created several documents that have received fairly wide circulation. Myths & Mysteries of HIV & AIDS fits on a single sheet of legal-sized paper and summarizes some of the major questions that AIDS dissidents have, including references – www.aras.ab.ca/mnm.html. A list of referenced quotations on AZT, the first and perhaps still the most commonly prescribed AIDS drug, describes the awesome toxicity and questionable effectiveness of this ‘therapy’ is available online at www.aras.ab/azt.html. A similar file on HAART (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy) describes concerns about the many drugs that have more recently been used in various combinations – www.aras.ab/haart.html. A third file documents problems with HIV tests, and the use of ‘surrogate markers’, mainly CD4 cell counts and viral load to monitor health (as a surrogate for actually monitoring health) – www.aras.ab/test.html. More recently, we have added web pages regarding the connection with drug abuse and AIDS (www.aras.ab/drug.html) and information about the supposed methods of transmission of HIV (www.aras.ab/transmission.html). The files of quotes are regularly updated.

Advocacy

Thankfully, there were no new cases of mandatory HIV/AIDS medication or testing in Canada this year.

Volunteering

If you are concerned about the effects of the prevalent dogma that HIV causes AIDS, there are ways that you could help out. While financial donations are always welcome, we welcome your time even more. Some of the roles that you could perform are:

Corresponding Secretary: Monitoring and following up on correspondence. Not surprisingly, we rarely get prompt responses to our (very polite) letters. Someone to follow up until a response is obtained would be very valuable. Even when a response is obtained, they are often evasive, and persistence is required to get any information.
Mailing out information. We often provide copies of books at no cost or reduced cost, as well as our publications.
Public Relations Campaigns. Through advertising or demonstrations, we can raise the profile of this important issue.
Arranging meetings. Arranging for meetings of HIV+ people who want to question their current advice, or perhaps arranging for speakers, videos or other forms of information exchange.
Website Manager. Ensuring that our website is accessible through all the major search engines.
Others. There are many things that we are not doing. Write your own volunteer job description! We would be glad to have you on board.

David Crowe, President, Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society