HARPER'S ACTIONS INSULT TO CANADA

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 Chretien 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.