New Democrats question Harper absence from HIV conference

NDP

 

HALIFAX – The Prime Minster has refused an invitation to be a keynote speaker at an International AIDS Conference for the second time in a row. The conference is this week in Vienna.

 

“By refusing the invitation to be a keynote speaker at the conference, the Prime Minister has thrown away an opportunity for Canada to be an integral part of the global discussion on HIV/AIDS,” said Megan Leslie, New Democrat Health Critic and Co-Chair of the HIV/AIDS and TB Parliamentary Caucus. “The message from the government is that Canada has spent money on this issue, but that is an extremely limited view of the options that the government has at their disposal.”

 

Canada has committed, along with the international community, to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, which include addressing HIV transmission and the strong link between the virus and child and maternal health.

 

“The Prime Minister wanted to make the improvement of Child and Maternal Health the flagship of his year as President of the G8, and he could have highlighted the link between HIV and child and maternal health at the conference in Vienna,” said Leslie. “In addition to this refusal to be a speaker, the government also failed at the recent G8 conferences to establish commitments to funding universal HIV prevention and treatment.”

 

According to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which funds more than half of HIV and AIDS treatment programs, and provides two-thirds of financing to fight TB and malaria worldwide, a child is born with HIV every minute of every day.

 

“As Canadians, we expect our government to take opportunities to be global leaders, to celebrate Canada’s commitments to human rights and social justice. This Prime Minister clearly doesn’t share that opinion today, nor did he in Toronto in 2006,” said Leslie.