Positively
cash-strapped

>> Getting the run-around from the feds,
HIV/AIDS groups are wondering
where all their money went

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

There is little doubt in anyone’s mind that the world is in desperate need of a vaccine against HIV/AIDS. The numbers speak for themselves: some 40 million infected worldwide, 25 million dead, and the appearance of a health crisis so severe it can cripple the world’s most vulnerable economies for generations.

So when Prime Minister Stephen Harper proposed, in February 2007, the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, there was some cause for hope. The Gates Foundation is one of the wealthiest charities in the world, and has dispersed over $14-billion (U.S.) since its inception in 2000, including over a quarter billion dollars towards a malaria vaccine.

But what’s good for the HIV vaccine goose isn’t necessarily good for the HIV treatment gander. Community groups in Quebec and Ontario are complaining that the federal government is withholding funds promised them by previous Liberal governments, and fear for their financial future. They say that $23-million worth of money promised them is being transferred from community groups to the Gates Foundation, and is effectively starving them of funds.

No funds, no explanation

“We all have the same worry,” says Lyse Pinault, the executive director of COCQ-SIDA, an umbrella organization of Quebec AIDS community groups. She says that in 2004, the federal government doubled the amount of money committed to fighting HIV/AIDS in Canada from $42-million to $84-million, to be dispersed by March 31, 2009. But according to Pinault and the Ontario AIDS Network, funds began drying up around the same time as Stephen Harper’s Conservative government was elected in early 2006. Anticipated increases in funding evaporated, and the groups have been left struggling for an explanation.

“Next year we’re slated for $3.2-million,” says Pinault. “But we haven’t seen it. We don’t know why.” She says repeated requests to the federal Health Ministry revealed nothing, other than specific programs are still under review—and have been, for over a year.

According to Pinault, about 70 per cent of the projects COCQ-SIDA members work on are long-term, spanning the four years of funding they were promised in 2004. The remaining 30 per cent are short-term, and more vulnerable to sudden cuts. In all, she says 23 organizations represented by COCQ-SIDA receive—or should be receiving—federal funds from the Public Health Agency of Canada, mostly for treatment and support of HIV/AIDS patients.

“We never receive any news,” she says. “We’re not certain it’s the Prime Minister’s office that’s making the decisions.”

With the Harper government’s notorious tight lip, it’s hardly surprising that COCQ-SIDA and the Ontario AIDS Network aren’t receiving news. But Pinault is convinced that HIV/AIDS patients aren’t high on the Conservatives’ list of priorities.

“This is not a government that is sensitive to HIV,” says Pinault. “We work with homosexuals, with drug users and ethnic minorities—these aren’t groups that rate high at Sunday mass.”

Shades of Harris

But what individual groups fear more than substantial funding cuts are complete funding cuts. One group contacted by the Mirror asked not to be identified, fearing that bad-mouthing the federal government will make funding applications a nightmare, and referred all on-the-record quotes to COCQ-SIDA. This kind of threat is familiar to Carolyn Bennett, a Toronto doctor turned federal Liberal MP and the former minister of state for public health. Now the Liberal health critic, she likens the current federal government to a national version of Ontario’s former Tory government.

“We saw this during the Mike Harris years,” she says. “We called it the Big Chill. Groups [that complained] about government funding were faced with a punitive approach: ‘If you don’t like these cuts, then we’ll show you real cuts.’ I’m totally familiar with it.” Tony Clement, the current federal Health Minister, and Jim Flaherty, the current federal Finance Minister, are both alumni of the Harris Conservatives.

“With Mike Harris, across the province, groups that should have spoken out were told that their funding would be at risk,” she says. “We lived it in Ontario, and I feel exactly the same thing is happening now.”

Last Thursday, Nov. 22, at a federal Health Committee meeting, Bennett and her Bloc Québécois counterpart Christiane Gagnon gave Clement a roasting over the cuts, and expect to follow it up this week with a joint declaration that may include the NDP’s critic. “We’re hoping for a one-two-three punch,” says Bennett.

“There’s something like $600,000 missing from COCQ-SIDA,” says Gagnon. “We want to know, where did the money go? They are having real difficulty supporting community organizations. The Health Ministry keeps saying, ‘We’ll get back to you,’ but we’ve been trying to get an answer for two months.”

Clement is expected to meet with some non-governmental and community organizations on Thursday, Dec. 6, but Bennett suspects the date was chosen to deliberately avoid bringing up the issue before Saturday, Dec. 1, World AIDS Day.

World AIDS Day events

SENDING THE CONSERVATIVES A MESSAGE:
Postcards on desplay at the Main Hall

AIDS is still killing thousands of people every year, and not just in the developing world. Many groups are warning against cuts in sex education and an increasing attitude of invulnerability regarding the disease. True, new drugs and treatment programs are making life more manageable for people infected with HIV/AIDS, but the disease remains fatal. The best thing you can do to prevent infection, of course, is using a condom, but here are some events that can also help you learn more about the disease and ponder its continued ravages.

On Friday, Nov. 30, Head & Hands will be hosting a Red Light Party, an “evening of art, advocacy and dancing” to benefit the Sense Project, their sexual health and peer education program, at the Main Hall (5390 St-Laurent), 9 p.m., $8 suggested donation. HIV/AIDS-solidarity-themed postcards, created by Montreal youth, will decorate the venue, and will later be mailed to the provincial Health and Education ministers to raise awareness about the lack of sex education in schools. The vernissage will be followed by the burlesque troupe Dead Doll Dancers and music courtesy of Tony Ezzy, DJs DirtyBoots, Xavier T. and B’Ugo. Dressing up accordingly is encouraged.

Also on Friday, a commemorative service will be held at Parc de l’Espoir, at the corner of Panet and Ste-Catherine E., in the Gay Village. This year, the ceremony will be dedicated to the memory of Douglas Buckley-Couvrette, a tireless AIDS campaigner whose efforts led to the park’s creation in 1994. Buckley-Couvrette died of AIDS-related complications on Nov. 13, 2002. The ceremony will take place on Friday, Nov. 30, at 11 a.m.

Over at McGill, a student mobilization week is already underway, but a couple of interesting talks are yet to take place. Perhaps most compelling will be a keynote speech on Friday, Nov. 30, by Dr. Mardge Cohen of Chicago’s Rush University, who will discuss “Women With HIV in Rwanda: Another World Is Possible,” at the Strathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building (3640 University, Rm. M1), 6–7:30 p.m. It will be followed by a candlelit vigil and a performance by the Soulstice Acapella group on the building’s outdoor stairs.

On Thursday, Nov. 29, a panel of McGill scientists will discuss “The Science of HIV: Challenges, Developments & Successes,” also at the Strathcona Building, Rm. 1/52, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

There will also be a postcard campaign to call on the federal government to “fulfill our promises on HIV/AIDS both domestically and internationally.” For more info, see www.treatthepeople.com.

On Saturday, Dec. 1, McGill will also launch YAHAnet (Youth, the Arts and HIV/AIDS Network), a Web site funded by UNESCO “that will encourage and facilitate the use of artistic expression such as hip hop, film, photography, graffiti and drama for HIV and AIDS education and advocacy” among the world’s youth. Check out www.yahanet.org as of Saturday.

The Fondation d’Aide Directe SIDA Montréal is having an open house at its headquarters at 1442 Panet from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 1 and Sunday, Dec. 2. They’re asking for non-perishable donations, hygiene products and/or cash. They’ll be accepting donations until Dec. 24. For more info, call (514) 522-1993.

Also on Saturday, Dec. 1, Aloha Yoga will host a Yogathon to raise some dough for World AIDS Day. The Aloha Yoga team will offer 13 hours’ worth of varied activities including introductory to expert classes, with yoga for parent and child in the morning, guided meditation and workshops. The evening features a screening of Radio-Canada filmmaker Pascal Gélinas’s Le Porteur d’eau and concludes with an “intimate, candlelit and unplugged” concert by Ève Cournoyer. Everything takes place at 6089 Châteaubriand, and all funds go to UNICEF. Donations can also be made at www.yogo24.com under the Aloha Yoga studio. For more info, call (514) 962-5642 or e-mail martine@alohayoga.ca.

-PL