The International AIDS Society will re-evaluate how it organizes international conferences as a result of the Canadian government’s denial of visas, the organization’s president said in Montreal on Friday.
The comments came as International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan canceled a planned appearance at the conference.
Adeeba Kamarulzaman told attendees at the opening ceremony of the 2022 AIDS conference that she is “deeply disturbed by the high number of denials and outstanding visas that prevented many registered delegates, including staff and leadership of the ‘IAS, they could enter Canada.’
He said the International AIDS Society, the association of HIV/AIDS professionals that organizes the conference, wants to ensure that its conferences include the communities most affected by HIV.
“We know that underlying the difficulty that many AIDS 2022 attendees have experienced in entering Canada is a broader problem of global inequality and systemic racism that significantly affects global health,” he said. “HIV, in particular, has always disproportionately affected the most marginalized.”
International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan’s office says “operational issues” prevented him from attending. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
Other speakers made strong criticisms of Canada’s visa policies. Activist and author Tim McCaskill told attendees that if countries like Canada are not up to the task of allowing “all interested parties” to attend, “then we need to hold these conferences in places that are.”
At one point during the opening ceremony, a group of protesters took to the stage, condemning visa denials and inequities in the global response to HIV. “No more AIDS conferences in racist countries,” said one woman as she gave a short speech.
Sajjan had been scheduled to speak at the opening of the conference, but canceled and was not replaced by another Canadian government representative.
Sajjan’s office said “operational issues” prevented him from attending. “We remain strong supporters of UNAIDS, the Global Fund and our trusted partners,” Haley Hodgson, a spokeswoman for the minister, said in an email.
Omar Sharif Jr., the master of ceremonies for the opening event, said Sajjan had notified organizers of the cancellation “recently,” prompting boos from the crowd.
UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima (centre) used her speech to call for a world where people from the Global South and their expertise are welcomed into rich countries. (Ryan Remyorz/The Canadian Press)
Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAIDS, said she was “sad that the government of Canada is not here.”
In his speech, he called for a fairer world, where everyone has access to quality health care and where people living with HIV do not face stigma, “including a world where no It denies entry to rich countries to people from the Global South to bring their expertise,” he added.
The conference, which brings together researchers, clinicians, activists and people living with HIV, focuses on both scientific progress in the fight against AIDS and the need for increased funding for the HIV response.
Impact of COVID-19 on the HIV response
UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, has said that millions of lives are at risk due to disruptions in HIV care caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and decreased funding for to the HIV response.
“As new infections increase in many regions and access to treatment is slowing, how can it be right that funding decreases?” Byanyima told reporters earlier on Friday.
One of the messages from the conference is that if the treatment has made the viral load undetectable, the virus is no longer transmissible.
This applies to both sexual partners and HIV-positive pregnant women who could pass the virus on to children, said Maurine Murenga, director of the Lean on Me Foundation. Her Kenyan organization works with adolescent girls and young women living with HIV or affected by tuberculosis.
“When I was diagnosed with HIV 20 years ago, I was given six months to live because there was no treatment. I didn’t know I would live long enough to get to a point where people living with HIV, with effective treatment, don’t can transmit HIV to our partners,” he told reporters.
The conference runs until Tuesday and more than 9,000 delegates are expected to attend in person, with 2,000 registered to participate remotely.