What does it mean to think of HIV/AIDS policy in a critical manner? Seeing Red offers the first critical analysis of HIV/AIDS policy in Canada. Featuring the diverse experiences of people living with HIV, this collection highlights various perspectives from academics, activists, and community workers who look ahead to the new and complex challenges associated with HIV/AIDS and Canadian society. In addition to representing a diversity of voices and perspectives, Seeing Red reflects on historical responses to HIV/AIDS in Canada. Among the specific issues addressed are the over-representation of Indigenous peoples among those living with HIV, the criminalization of HIV, and barriers to health and support services, particularly as experienced by vulnerable and marginalized populations. The editors and contributors seek to show that Canada has been neither uniquely compassionate nor proactive when it comes to supporting those living with HIV/AIDS. Instead, this remains a critical area of public policy, one fraught with challenges as well as possibilities.

Catherine Frazee wants her readers to know that there is far more to disability than most people think or assume. There is much not to like about disability, such as the ways it diminishes status and opportunity, and the ways it requires medical intrusions which, even if lifesaving, are nobody’s idea of a good time. As becomes apparent in this powerful collection of writing, there is much more to the story of disabled life. There is adaptation and activism. There is art, philosophy, and history. There is solidarity, identity, collective struggle, and shared culture. Frazee offers a glimpse into a rich and delicate ecology of disability that warrants not fear and pity, but recognition and respect.