CANADA: Judge Tosses $33M Suit Of Man Who Blamed Government For Getting HIV

A Canadian judge has tossed out the lawsuit of a man who demanded $33M from the federal and provincial governments for allowing an HIV-positive former prostitute from Thailand into the country. He married the woman after meeting her at the Toronto strip club which was also named in his lawsuit.

Justice Carole Brown tossed out Whiteman’s $33-million lawsuit that alleged the Zanzibar, the province and federal government failed to protect him from his HIV-infected wife. “It is extremely unfortunate, indeed tragic, that Mr. Percy Whiteman contracted HIV from his wife, Suwalee “Ricky” Iamkhong who he sponsored for permanent residency in Canada,” wrote Brown. She ruled “there are no genuine issues requiring a trial” against the defendants, the Attorney General of Canada, or the Zanzibar. “I have concluded none of the defendants are responsible for Whiteman’s contraction of HIV. Mr. Whiteman was the author of his own misfortune,” Brown wrote in her judgment, which was obtained by the Toronto Sun Monday. Zanzibar owner Allen Cooper, said the “case was quite distressing because it seemed meritless and totally ridiculous from the beginning. “He married her and chose to have unprotected sex with her while he knew she was from Thailand and had been a prostitute,” said Cooper. “It wasn’t our fault.

The above-linked articles notes that the woman never told her Canadian husband that her previous husband had died of AIDS in Thailand. She immigrated to Canada in 1995 and was deported in 2010 after serving two years in prison for criminal negligence leading to Whiteman's infection. Whiteman's lawyer says that he might file an appeal.

RELATED: Canada does not have a blanket ban on HIV-positive people from immigrating, but some HIV-positive applicants are rejected if they cannot pay for their own medications as the government says that would place "excessive demand on health and social services." Visitors who plan to stay in Canada for fewer than six month do not have to disclose their HIV status, but as of 2005 permanent residence applicants must submit to an HIV test.