On October 19, 2015, Canada’s voters have an opportunity to decide what kind of government they want — one that will uphold health and human rights for all, or one that will maintain outmoded and ill-informed policies proven to produce devastating consequences for both individual and public health.
The Legal Network sent a questionnaire to each of the major federal parties — the Bloc Québécois, the Conservative Party of Canada, the Green Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party of Canada — to gauge their positions on critical issues related to HIV and human rights. In particular, we asked them whether they would:
· support a fully-funded, up-to-date federal strategy on HIV and AIDS;
· repeal Bill C-2 and support supervised consumption services;
· support the implementation of needle and syringe programs in prisons;
· repeal Bill C-36 and undertake reforms to protect sex workers’ rights;
· support the human rights of LGBTI people, including via the recommendations in the Dignity Initiative’s Call to Action (see side bar); and
· support access to medicines by fixing Canada’s (broken) Access to Medicines Regime and refusing to sign and ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership if it contains yet more restrictive rules on pharmaceuticals.
All parties except the Conservative Party responded. Both the questionnaire and the parties’ responses are available on our website, at www.aidslaw.ca/election2015.
Also this week, we will publish a series of daily posts on each issue — and why you should care about how the parties responded.
Next week, we’ll share responses from parties to a separate questionnaire that we developed jointly with the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (CDPC) and Moms United and Mandated to Saving the Lives of Drug Users (mumsDU) on harm reduction, overdose prevention, cannabis policy, and related issues. These issues have already begun to surface during the federal election — and will shape how Canada engages in the global debate at the UN General Assembly next over the need for new approaches to replace the current, failing “war on drugs.”
Finally, keep an eye out for our post co-written with Canada’s other national HIV organizations on the need for a coordinated national strategy to respond to HIV and hepatitis C (HCV), to be published at The Huffington Post.
And remember to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more updates!
In solidarity,
The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network