"I have a bit field in my SQL database " what is the data type exacrly? As you pointed out -1 is YES/TRUE in ACCESS and 0 is NO/FALSE.
You may be getting a zero due to type conversions. Have you tried to display the ACTIVE value with debug.print in your interactive window.
Can you use a Boolean type instead taht may be a better fit?
You should correct the bracket issue as well. I am surprised this does not generate a syntax error already.
Hope this helps.