Chris Selley: Did Stephen Harper “snub” the AIDS conference?

Chris Selley July 26, 2010 – 1:30 pm

From The Globe and Mail‘s Ottawa Notebook blog:

When critics jumped on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to stay away from a major international AIDS conference that draws heads of state, his office pointed out that Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq attended as the representative of the Canadian government.
But Ms. Aglukkaq’s performance did little to impress some of the doctors and scientists at the gathering. …
Ms. Aglukkaq was the target of additional criticism after she told Canadian delegates she would not sign the Vienna Declaration — a scientific statement that argues the criminalization of drug use is fuelling the HIV/AIDS epidemic — because it clashes with Canada’s National Anti-Drug Strategy, which is designed to prevent people from using illicit drugs in the first place.

From Peter McKnight in the Vancouver Sun:

This week the feds once again displayed their hostility to evidence-based health policy when they refused to support the Vienna Declaration. …

From a Toronto Star editorial:

While world-ranking advocates and scientists like Stephen Lewis and Dr. Julio Montaner will be among those attending the international AIDS conference that opens today in Vienna, the Harper government will have a much lower profile.

From Janice Kennedy in the Ottawa Citizen:

Perspectives from the far right are their political life-force, guiding their decisions, dictating their initiatives.
So it is imperative to appear tough on the problem of crime, characterized as growing. …
It is imperative to maintain other appearances, too — to have Harper, for instance, decline an invitation to the current International AIDS Conference in Vienna.

Now, I know next to nothing about AIDS, and I’d sign the Vienna Declaration in a heartbeat if my signature meant anything. But from a straight reporting standpoint, two salient facts seem curiously missing from all this: How many other countries have signed the Vienna Declaration? And how many other world leaders attended the AIDS conference that wrapped up on the weekend?

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Media caught singling out Harper for “snubbing” AIDS conference

The National Post’s Chris Selley nails some journalists and an editorial staff for running articles that insinuated PM Stephen Harper was somehow remiss as Canada’s leader to not attend and sign the Vienna Declaration. Turns out not one of the other G20 heads of state attended nor signed on for good reason either but this [...]