This seems like something arising from modern history's dark moments and irrational fears, particularly when the frightened, fear-mongerer is a judge. From the February 14, 2008, News & Views section of Xtra!, page 14, is the article about this judge and his comments and the lack of education in general of judges on HIV/AIDs related issues:

JUDGE'S HIV COMMENTS SPARK ANGER
Education badly needed, say critics

NATIONAL NEWS

Krishna Rau

A Barrie judge who refused to let an HIV-positive witness testify in his courtroom has led to a call for judicial education on AIDS and queer issues.

In November Ontario Court of Justice (OCJ)  judge Jon-Jo Douglas told a sexual assault trial that an HIV-positive witness with Hepatitis C was a danger to the court.

"The HIV virus will live in a dried state for year after year and only needs moisture to reactivate itself," Douglas told the crown attorney according to a trial transcript. "I mean, he speaks within two feet of me with two serious infectious diseases. Either you mask your witness and/or move us to another courtroom  or we do not proceed."

Court staff also wore rubber gloves to place documents touched by the witness in plastic bags.

The crown attorney asked the Ontario Superior Court to remove Douglas, but Justice Margaret Eberhard refused, saying Douglas has jurisdiction over courtroom safety.

The trial was adjourned over Douglas's concerns. It was scheduled to resume on Thu, Feb 14 with a new judge.

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network (CHALN) and the HIV and AIDS Legal Clinic have filed complaints with the Ontario Judicial Council over both Douglas and Eberhard.

"We suggest that it would be appropriate to examine the extent to which judges receive information about HIV/AIDS and related legal and human rights questions, in the course of judicial education," states the complaint. "We would be happy to discuss further with you, or with the Education Secretariat of the Ontario Court of Justice and similar bodies such as the National Judicial Institute, how to overcome HIV-related prejudice in the courtrooms of Ontario and Canada."

Leon Mar, CHALN's director of communications, says the extent of the judge's ignorance is a shocker.

"This is a wakeup call," he says. "This is a clear signal that HIV prejudice still exists in the court system."

Canadian courts are responsible for establishing their own education programs, most of which are optional. The result, says critics, is that judges decide how much they need to learn.

"You might not have the training because you might not know enough to know you need the training," says Hilary Cook, the chair of the legal issues committee at queer lobby group Egale Canada.

Even when judges do attend sessions their willingness to learn might be questionable.

"I think it falls into the category of you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink," says University of Toronto law professor Audrey Macklin, who has conducted judicial training sessions on immigration and refugee issues. "They regard any attempt to teach them as an attempt to infringe on their independence."

A spokesperson for the OCJ referred questions about the Education Secretariat to the court's online annual report. That report claims the Secretariat will "support and encourage programs which maintain and enhance social, ethical and cultural sensitivity," but offers no specifics.

The National Judicial Institute (NJI) and the OCJ joingly fund a position of education director for the court, but the NJI would provide little information on programs around HIV or queer issues.

Linda Russell, a spokesperson for the NJI, says the organization offers education in "social context," but wouldn't specify whether that included people with HIV/AIDS or queers.

"I'm sure you can understand that social context involves a great many groups," she says. "It would involve my doing a great deal of research to find out."

From the January 2008, Vol. 02, Issue 01, B: Beauty & Beyond magazine, pages 18-19, an article about S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder):

LET THERE BE LIGHT
Light/Colour Therapy Part I

THE S.A.D. TRUTH

By Olwen Hydross

Light is a source of Health & Beauty. A visible radiant energy that travels through space in the form of electromagnetic waves that varies in size, intensity and frequency. When light travels at a speed of 300,000 km per second it vibrates. When the different colours. Not visible to the naked eye, they exist anyway.

Science of Chromotherapy
Before the scientific age, colour was considered akin to "divinity". It was only discovered in the 17th century by Sir Isaac Newton's demonstration of passing lightrays through a glass prism that "white light" (sun light), was not just a single component but also a complete sum of all the colours of the spectrum. The light rays when passed through the prism become divided into a series of luminous zones, which reproduce all the colours of the rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. All have different wavelengths and vibrate at different frequencies.

Effect of Light on Organisms
Seasonal Affective Disorders (SAD)
Photobiology, the discipline that studies the effect of light on living organisms, has clearly demonstrated the beneficial effect of sunlight on all living things. We perceive light through the eyes and through the surface of the skin. Light is absorbed through specific biochemical receptors that are present in our organism,  and through biophysical and metabolic receptors it transmits energy to all our organisms. Regulating the production of Melatonin (sleep hormone) and Serotonin (awake hormone).

Just as animals rely on the signals from the sun to keep their body clocks exact to synchronize their activities, so do we humans need sufficient daylight to synchronize their activities, so do we humans need sufficient daylight to synchronize our circadian and circ-annual rhythms and body clock. The biological clock can keep the time, but in the absence of connection from the daylight cycle, the biological clock gets out of sync, and affects our physical and mental health. Seasonal Affective Disorders (SAD), is one effect of reduced exposure to sunlight.

A similar thing occurs when we travel across different time zones, we experience what we call "jet lag". This de-synchronization of the body's rhythms is suspect in triggering problems; i.e. hormonal imbalances, sleep disorders and mood swings.

Absorption Through Skin
Scientific studies have demonstrated that only certain parts of the body are able to absorb light. These "light sensitive areas" coincide with the Acupuncture Points, Qi channels, and "Meridians", Yin and Yang, on the body's surface.

When human living organism is exposed to visible light at these actual points the light can travel immense distances within the body. The "Meridians" can be thought of as a "light distribution system" similar to a fiber optic communication system.

The light penetration through the human tisssue depends upon the spectral range of light (Colour) used. White light (mixture of all colours) diffused the best, followed by Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Turquoise, Indigo and Magenta light, which is the weakest.

These studies observed that "light and colour" are natural sources of energy that can help the body to cure itself by non-artificial means and by re-establishing corporal balance.

Cellular Energy
If we think of the therapeutic capacity of "solar light" as a "multi-coloured" energy source, it is easy to understand why certain colours, when considered separately, can be so effective. Each colour has different properties and actions, with different effects, such as: calming, exciting, re-vitalizing, or normalizing.

When a cell is hit by a light wave that has a wavelength equal to its own, a resonance is created. This sort of  "agitation" provoked by the absorption of light energy causes chemical / physical changes to take place, is able to restore the molecular resonance and brings a normalizing effect of the cellular function.

Some photochemical phenomena happens everyday. For example, on a bright sunny day when skin is exposed to the sun it will turn brown. Light interacts with molecules, increasing their energy, thereby modifying, or separating them to create new ones. Light colour acts on our cells in various other ways and may be used for therapeutic purposes. Frequently newborn, premature babies, born with jaundice, are treated in hospital under blue light and recover very quickly.

Chromotherapy
Highly sophisticated apparatus, designed to select each colour and deliver the power of energy on the basis of its wavelength, intensity and range of action, is now available to help in the treatment of common beauty problems such as: Excess Fat, Water Retention, Cellulite, Stretch Marks, Solar Redness, Sun Rash, Pre-mature Skin Aging, Dry Skin, Wrinkles, Acne, Oily Skin Prevention of Free Radicals, Slack Skin, Atonic Skin, and Threat Veins.

Selection and duration of exposure to the colour/s used in the treatment is customized, depending on the condition to be treated.

Light Food for Thought
Considering that our physical and mental dispositions are effected by light & colour, it is wise to carefully consider our daily surroundings, i.e.; colour of clothing and paint on our home, or office walls.... Even lighting: Full Spectrum rather than Fluorescent. Many of us work in  artifically lit buildings that do not provide sufficient intensity of light to affect the suppression of the hormone "melatonin" and to connect our ciradian Rhythms. Light specialist believe that this mal-illumination may be the heart of many common disorders, including fatigue, depression, suppressed immune function, sleep disorders, skin damage.

After all, a world without light and colour can become a SAD place.