AIDS Protestors Block Streets To Send Message To Harper
Posted August 16, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
AIDS activists spent the afternoon stopping traffic at Yonge and Bloor to try and get the attention of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The goal: get the government to keep Canada’s only safe injection site for drug addicts open.
It’s in B.C. and the AIDS Conference is in Toronto. But those behind the demo are hoping the message travels all the way to Ottawa.
“We are saying 336 people were saved, with the safe injection site,” points out Gillian Maxwell of Insite. “And so we have 336 banners, and we are illustrating that for Mr. Harper, because he is not here at the conference. And we want to save how many lives are saved at Insite in 18 months.”
Donald Gaebel is one who survived because of the insight provided by Insite.
“I was really close to overdosing and stuff,” he shrugs. “I almost ended up basically almost dying from it.” He claims he wouldn’t still be here if it weren’t for the program.
The protestors kept the busy intersection closed for about ten minutes, hoping drivers would understand their cause despite the inconvenience.
“I would like to say that ten minutes of time is worth one life, let alone hundreds of lives,” Maxwell defends.
She’s among those critical of the P.M.’s no-show at the conference, where his ministers have been roundly criticized for doing too little to help the world’s AIDS patients.
“I think it is disappointing that the prime minister didn’t attend the conference,” she notes. “AIDS is the biggest issue globally that we have to face. And it is not just on a global issue. It is not just in Africa. We have people living with AIDS who are not receiving treatment.So we need universal injecting sites for people who inject drugs.”
Insite is North America’s first supervised injection site for drug users. The protesters complain they haven’t yet had a response to a request aimed at the government to keep the site open.
It will become illegal on September 12th, if a Health Canada exemption of the Controlled Substances Act isn’t renewed.
