December 18, 2017, was the four year anniversary of my Hepatitis C cure subsequent to living with the disease for approximately six years after being infected from being assaulted with an infected razor blade without consent by “WWE Hall of Famer” Larry “Abdullah The Butcher” Shreve.  When the standard Hep C treatment of Interferon and Ribavirin failed to be effective on me in 2010 I underwent a 36 week “Incivek Triple Therapy” regime that was experimental for my genotype (type 2) that was by far the toughest 36 weeks of my life health wise.  I dealt with horribly physical and emotional side effects as well as financial effects due to my inability to work for most of the treatment.  Although the Incivek Therapy cured me of the disease it was never formally approved for my Genotype and was ultimately taken off the market in October 2014, exactly two years after I started my therapy on the drugs.

I suffered a lot of hardships due to Hepatitis C, most notably having a WWE contract offer rescinded in 2009 due to testing positive in my pre-contract medical exam.  As it is against human rights to discriminate against an athlete based on Hepatitis C status there was ultimately a legal situation regarding the rescinding of my contract that resulted in an out of court settlement in 2012.

The wrestling job was not my only loss of employment due to Hep C.  I was laid off from a well-paying group home job where I was working as a residential councillor in 2011 due to the disease and I was wrongfully terminated by the City of Ottawa while I was on sick leave undergoing my Incivek treatment in 2013.  It took my Union (Local 503) approximately four years to get me back to work with that employer after the wrongful dismissal and the arbitration was dragged out to ridiculous extremes. Ultimately, I was awarded 25K in back pay by the City along with my job back albeit with a significant pay cut. The back pay awarded to me was less than half of what the union was asking for but was awarded according to the arbitrators because I had worked other jobs during the time I of my termination even thought I have always worked numerous jobs at once, even prior to the termination.  Despite this I always enjoyed my fitness related job with the City of Ottawa and am very happy to be back at work with a great team at the East Ottawa recreational facility where I currently work part time.

My Union has gone on record saying that they never asked for Human Rights damages for me as an employee despite the “Incivek Triple Therapy” and other mental health related medications I was on to counteract the Triple Therapy’s well documented psychological side effects during my treatment.  This was very unfortunate however when I was terminated the City of Ottawa also placed a City-Wide Trespass notice on me indicating that I would be subject to arrest if I set foot on the property of any City of Ottawa Recreational facility. 

This City-Wide trespass notice affected me not only as an employer but also as a long-time facility user and renter as I have been using Ottawa Recreational facilities since I was a small child in swimming lessons, have held City Gym Memberships since I was 13 and have rented City Recreational Facilities arena’s and multipurpose rooms for a decade in relations to my Great North Wrestling company, never having any issues prior to my 2nd Hep C treatment.  I eventually had to retain legal council to have the notices removed however the City Ultimately broke the agreement I had for absolutely no reason which led me to file a Human Rights Complaint against them with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.  The Human rights situation is still active, and a mediation is scheduled for January 18.  If a resolution is not found there the situation will continue before the Human Rights Tribunal.

In relation to the matter of Larry “Abdullah The Butcher” Shreve being found guilty of “Negligence, Assault and Battery” in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the judgement was endorsed by the Stat Court of Fulton County in Georgia where Shreve resides.  Unfortunately, up to this point Shreve has done everything possibly to avoid paying the judgement from closing his long-time “Abdullah The Butcher’s House of Ribs” restaurant, to selling off properties he owned before my layers could obtain leans on them, to working autograph conventions and events where pay is usually in cash money making it very difficult to be traced.  It is unknown if Shreve was ever treated for his Hepatitis C genotype 2 illness.  Regrettably, although my Canadian and US legal teams did a wonderful job at winning the cases, they have failed in matter of the collection of the judgement despite the large percentage of the judgement they would have received upon collection.

I have included three update videos in the blog.  The first is an update on my life and significant personal and professional accomplishments since being cured of Hepatitis C in December 2013, the second is a video detailing the Abdullah The Butcher Hepatitis C case and collection matter and the 3rd is a video about my recent “Impact Wrestling Xplosion” International Television wrestling match I had that aired on December 30th.  That match was a huge deal to me as it was the first time I wrestled for a major company since being declared cured of Hepatitis C.  With all the stigma attached to that virus and the many people who believe that is still an incurable disease I feel that was a tremendous accomplishment and I commend the people at Impact Wrestling for the opportunity!

Abdullah The Butcher Hep C Lawsuit Collection update: 

HANNIBAL on Impact Wrestling TV Match: