We’ve heard a lot in the news these days about AIDS and HIV thanks to the Vienna Conference. Last week upwards of 25,000 researchers, activists and government officials flooded Vienna to discuss AIDS related issues during the XVIII International AIDS Conference. Among the faithful were philanthropic rock stars Bill Gates and Bill Clinton as well as Vancouver”s own Dr. Julio Montaner, the president of the International AIDS Society and director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/ AIDS.

According to Dr. Montaner and other AIDS treatment activists like Maxine Davis, ED of the Dr. Peter Centre, a Vancouver centre offering day care for vulnerable people suffering from HIV/AIDS, Vancouver is a global rock star. The research is cutting edge and the treatment has transformed places like the Dr. Peter Centre into a model on how to effectively treat some of the most difficult to care for. So sought after are these treatment models that treatment and policy experts have traveled from as far as Washington DC and Kaliningrad, Russia to learn from them. It should be a given that Vancouver’s successes should translate to a national reputation that would be a beacon for the world’s AIDS activists and researchers. Unfortunately, the Canadian government is singlehandedly sullying this international reputation of excellence.

At the end of the conference last week, the Conservative led federal government continued their long hostility to evidence-based health policy when they refused to support the Vienna Declaration. The declaration’s aims was to ensure governments take necessary steps to improve community health and safety, particularly as it pertains to HIV/ AIDS. So far the  declaration has been endorsed by more than 12,000 people, including five Nobel Laureates, the former presidents of Colombia, Brazil and Mexico, and many leading medical and scientific organizations, such as the top medical journal The Lancet. Hard to believe anyone could find much fault in that.

But in the end the fact the Vienna Declaration included supervised injection as a method of harm reduction seems to have sealed its fate in the minds the Prime Minister’s policy makers. While his government continues to battle to destroy world-renown Insite in the courts, Canada’s Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq continually has refused to support the idea of supervised injection, despite the fact its a consensus among AIDS researchers and policy makers around the world that it saves lives. Instead of joining the overwhelming crowd, the Health Minister was in Vienna to announce funding for a maternal health program and a renewed Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, which is a Government of Canada and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation collaboration.

The result of the Aglukkaq’s decision to ignore the Vienna Declaration is an embarrassment that can be likened to Canada’s equally ridiculous isolation around climate change in Bali in 2007. Talk about recluse from the global AIDS community. This lack of commitment to the very fundamentals of harm reduction hasn’t gone unnoticed by activists. Last Tuesday, the Canadian government’s booth was trashed by angry protesters. Later on in the week the Health Minister came under increasing fire and went to ground. On Friday, CBC Radio admitted that after days of trying to contact her, the ministry’s communications staff had used just about every excuse in the book. She still hadn’t commented on her position surrounding harm reduction.

Sadly the federal government still seems intent on taking credit where none is due. As time goes by and people continue to die on the streets across the country due to an antiquated drug-policy ideologically spearheaded by the Conservatives, here’s hoping something changes soon so Canada will no longer be isolated from the global scientific community.