MINDEMOYA—In a June 24 ceremony in Ottawa, Governor General David Johnston will pin the Meritorious Service Cross on Spring Bay resident Peter Ford in recognition of his pioneering work with HIV-AIDS.
According to the federal government’s honours and awards website, Meritorious Service Decorations (Civil Division) recognize remarkable contributions in many different fields of endeavour, from advocacy initiatives and health care services, to research and humanitarian efforts. Past recipients have tackled poverty in their community, improved education opportunities for children in Canada and abroad, or raised awareness of important causes and issues.
The Meritorious Service Cross (MSC)—the Civil Division Cross—“recognizes a deed or an activity that has been performed in an outstandingly professional manner, or with uncommonly high standards; the activity is often innovative, sets an example for others to follow, improves the quality of life of a community and brings considerable benefit or honour to Canada.”
“I am not quite sure what it is all about,” admitted a slightly bemused Dr. Ford. “They didn’t say.”
Dr. Ford’s pioneering work with prisoners infected with HIV-AIDS certainly fits that bill, and although the award description does not cite such as being a criterion, there was more than a little bravery involved, certainly in his earliest work with those infected with the virus.
Today, HIV-AIDS is still a feared scourge, but in the 1980s when he first began his work it was not fear that permeated the field—it was sheer terror.
“There wasn’t a lot known about it at the time,” admitted Dr. Ford. “In fact, a lot of the earliest things we had to deal with was dampening down the anxiety among the patients in prison.”
Dr. Ford noted that when AIDS first appeared on the scene, there was a tremendous amount of mystery surrounding the disease and the fear of the unknown, how and why it was transmitted were among the foremost of those concerns.
Dr. Ford described his involvement as a pioneer in the field as coming about almost by accident.
“When AIDS appeared, no one had a good test,” he said. The best indication was the lymphocyte ratio. Dr. Ford’s immunology lab at the Kingston Hospital was moved to the forefront.
The field was both complex and challenging, and it was all too clear that those challenges were going to grow dramatically as time went on. “I realized quite early that I would have to get on top of it,” he said. “I told them I would only do it if I got to meet the patient.”
Soon he found himself in a culture and world quite alien to his own experiences up until that time. Prisons and their residents are noted for being a challenging environment in which to navigate at the best of times.
Dr. Ford retired in 2015 at the age of 75. He admits with a laugh that he might well have retired sooner if he had been able to find a replacement sooner. “Nobody else wanted to do it,” he said. “It was generally not a good environment.”
What sustained the passion that kept his shoulder to the grindstone in such a challenging field for so long? “It was interesting,” he said. “There were aspects to the work that were quite rewarding.”
Dr. Ford’s wife Sally was also involved in the early work in setting up the clinic and working with the AIDS patients, but she was later offered another position that fit with her own interests and career goals.
This is not Dr. Ford’s first award recognizing his work in the field. In 2012 the Canadian Association for HIV Research (CAHR) presented him with its Red Ribbon Award. That award is “presented by CAHR to an individual who has given outstanding service to the cause of research in a way that has increased our understanding of the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS, while enhancing the quality of life of those living with this disease.” Or, as the CAHR website notes “in the words of Dr. Ken Rosenthal, who instituted the award in 2001 during his term as president of CAHR, the award recognizes someone who has gone ‘above and beyond the call of duty’.”
The citation goes on to point out that “no one can accuse Dr. Peter Ford of mincing his words. More than 20 years of working with HIV-positive inmates in Ontario’s federal prisons has made him outspoken about the need for Canada’s correctional system to attend more to the rate of HIV infection in prisons and the risky behaviour that leads to that infection.”
“Large chunks of the system don’t want to pay attention to the problem,” Dr. Ford said in response to the Red Ribbon Award. “But once you start seeing prisoners, you realize there is a problem with risk behaviour and the volume of people with HIV.”
Perhaps most telling about the quality of Dr. Ford’s dedication to his work can be found in his expressed surprise at receiving the Red Ribbon. “No one pays much attention to what goes on in prisons and the people who work with them,” he said. Despite being well aware of that fact from his life’s work, Dr. Ford continued to work with that population long after he retired from his other commitments.
