Canada gets a D in protecting women, girls
ANDRÉ PICARD
PUBLIC HEALTH REPORTER
August 5, 2008
MEXICO CITY — Canada scores a lamentable D grade in its efforts to protect and care for girls and women with HIV-AIDS, according to a newly released international report card.
In fact, girls and women in Canada fare no better than those in much poorer countries such as Nicaragua and Zimbabwe, according to the analysis.
"What women and girls in Canada need are prevention and education programs specific for women and girls, female condoms and more research for microbicides," said Louise Binder of the Blueprint for Action on Women and Girls and HIV-AIDS.
She noted that the number of women newly infected with HIV-AIDS in Canada as a percentage of the total more than doubled in the past decade, to 28 per cent in 2006 from 11 per cent in 1996.
In Canada’s aboriginal community, women now make up fully half of all those with HIV-AIDS, a level comparable with the hardest hit region of the world, sub-Saharan Africa.
Speaking at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Ms. Binder criticized governments in Canada for their failures on a number of fronts, including: a lack of legal rights for those infected with HIV-AIDS, the criminalization of prostitution, a lack of AIDS education for young people and the absence of a home-based care plan.
In particular, she assailed the federal government for failing to support harm-reduction measures like the safe-injection site in Vancouver and for cutting back funding for HIV-AIDS programs.
Parliament had, in an all-party motion, pledged to increase spending for the Canadian Strategy on HIV-AIDS to $84.4-million this year, but Ottawa has trimmed funding back to $72.6-million this year.
