Harper's actions insult to Canada
August 19, 2006 - To the embarrassment of Canadians, petulance and political calculation trumped concern for
humanity when the world came to Toronto this week to face the deadly challenge posed by AIDS.
Not only did Prime Minister Stephen Harper go out of his way to avoid the 16th International AIDS Conference, the largest gathering of its kind in history, his government cancelled a funding announcement it had scheduled there. Finally, as if to underline his scorn for the meeting, Harper indicated the long-expected announcement on Canadian AIDS funding would be delayed until delegates to the conference were gone.
Harper's excuse was that the issue of AIDS had become so "politicized" at the gathering that this was "not the time" for Ottawa to announce more money to stem the disease.
That betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of this conference, and a contemptible reluctance to endure criticism. As a result, the meeting's 24,000 delegates left Toronto yesterday with the enduring image of Canada's government holding back in the fight against AIDS.
That image insults every Canadian concerned about stopping one of the worst pandemics in human history.
Harper's complaint that the meeting had become "politicized" is ridiculous. From the very inception of this conference in the early years of the pandemic, it has served as a political forum - more so than any other medical gathering. That is part of its unique character and also a source of its strength. Protests by AIDS sufferers in previous years have been a driving force in attracting money and researchers' concern. In the past, some activists threw blood and trashed drug company booths. But they got the job done. AIDS won attention, and science produced results.
That tradition of protest and politicization is an inseparable part of this meeting. And that means governments and their officials can expect a rough ride. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was resoundingly booed when he addressed the conference in Montreal in 1989.
To his shame, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien skipped the gathering when it came to Vancouver in 1996. Likewise, Harper took the expedient way out and went instead to the Arctic. His conduct was inexcusable.
Clearly, more funding on AIDS will come eventually. And to be sure, although Canada has traditionally played a leading role in the fight against AIDS, it can do more on several fronts, at home and abroad:
This country needs to increase its spending, by at least $60 million, to pay its global share of a special program battling the triple threat posed by AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
With more than 4 million people becoming infected with HIV in the last year alone, more money must be pumped into research to prevent this scourge, especially into the search for a microbicidal gel blocking transmission of the virus and in the quest for a preventive vaccine.
A Canadian program designed to deliver low-cost AIDS drugs to Africa has become bogged down in red tape and corporate wrangling. After two years it has not delivered a single pill. Health Minister Tony Clement has promised an immediate
review of that flawed process. But with AIDS killing 8,000 people a day, change is needed now, not more study.
A safe-injection site in downtown Vancouver providing addicts with clean needles and treatment in case of an overdose is an effective way of cutting transmission of the virus. Yet, shockingly, the Harper government has made no commitment to keep the site open past Sept. 12.
"It would be positively perverse" to allow the clinic to close, Stephen Lewis, United Nations special envoy on AIDS, said yesterday to cheers in an emotional speech closing the conference. "There should be several more such facilities in Canada and around the world."
Even if Harper moves on all these areas, he will have let vulnerable people down in the fight against AIDS. That's because this conference was not just about politicians and programs, or celebrities and scientists.
This gathering actively encourages the attendance of people living with HIV, of doctors and nurses working against incredible odds in dusty African villages, and of community leaders who have seen the worst that this virus can do, who have suffered its ravages and who are still fighting back. More than 1,000 such people received special scholarships to attend the meeting. Many more from poorer countries benefited from discounted fees. These are the people Harper snubbed by turning away.
Harper had a chance to stand in solidarity with them against a horrific pandemic. Instead, lacking their courage, he surrendered to political expedience, to fear of being booed and to sulking over criticism. For shame.
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Toronto Star - Editorial/Opinion.
"Reproduced with permission - Torstar Syndication Services"
Toronto Star
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