Harper Embarases Canada

Stephen Harper has just given everyone who is trying to fight AIDS the middle finger. By refusing to attend the AIDS conference in Toronto, he has very effectively shown that the Canadian government doesn't give two shits about the people suffering and dying because of HIV/AIDS around the world, from Johannesburg to Bangkok to Caracas to Toronto. The fact that he could not be bothered to come to this conference, and would rather be on Ellesmere Island announcing some new arctic sovereignty initiative, speaks volumes. It says that the millions of people infected with HIV/AIDS don't matter to this government.

This Conservative government is an embarrassment. With the billions of dollars being pumped into buying military equipment, we could make great strides toward better treatments for AIDS, and hopefully a cure. Why are we spending money on new ways to kill people when we could be spending it on new ways to allow people to live? Canadian values do not include allowing those worse off then us to die in squalor and in pain. Canadian values do not involve abandoning the sick to fend for themselves. Canadian values do not include telling the international community to fuck off.

There is still time for Harper to reverse some of the damage done to Canada's international reputation, at least on this issue. He should immediately fly from Nunavut to Toronto and take part in the sessions of the conference tomorrow. Harper should make it clear that Canadians will do everything possible to find a solution to the pain and suffering of the millions with HIV/AIDS.

Stephen Lewis, the U.N. Special Envoy for AIDS, said that the only reason that he can imagine for Stephen Harper not attending the conference is that he is afraid to be booed. Unfortunately, I can see another, more dangerous, motivation behind his actions. He likely believes, as many on the right do, that AIDS is a disease of gay men and intravenous drug users. This was the view advanced by Toronto City Councillor Rob Ford when Council was debating whether or not to provide funding to the conference. Ford said, "if you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you won't get AIDS probably -- that's the bottom line." This attitude reveals the ignorance, bigotry and hatred that underlie the position of the right on this subject. Obviously this attitude has no basis in fact.

AIDS is a horrible disease that affects everyone equally. Being straight or gay has nothing to do with whether one will or will not contract HIV/AIDS. Risky behaviour is what determines whether or not one will contract HIV/AIDS. Thus a person having safe sex is drastically less likely to get HIV/AIDS then a person, regardless of their sexual orientation, who does not practice safe sex. Infection rates among heterosexual men and women have more than doubled in Canada over the last twenty years, and in the developing world a vast majority of those affected by AIDS are heterosexual men and women. A drug user who can get clean needles from a needle exchange and thus does not need to share needles is at dramatically less risk of contracting the virus than a drug user forced to share needles with others. And everybody who is infected suffers. The attitude that HIV/AIDS is a disease of gay men and intravenous drug users ignores the facts, and the reality that everybody who is infected by the virus suffers in a similar way. Obviously, the attitudes of the right are not based on reality, or are based on a view of history that is at best warped and at worst outright false. Harper must disown this view, and must show that the government of Canada takes the problems posed by HIV/AIDS seriously.

Cheers,

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