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Good afternoon. LaLi Mohamed here from Deviant Productions
where we join you today in one of the busiest intersections in Toronto,
Dundas Square.
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Community members and a coalition of students gathered today to protest Canada's ongoing failure
to increase accessibility to HIV medicine.
A "die in" is taking place
where members hope to shed light
not only on the many lives lost because of lack of accessibility to this medicine,
but also to push for motion bill 393 to pass.
Uh, about two years ago, a bill called Bill c393 was passed
as a private members bill in parliament,
and we really want to ensure that it survives,
that it is amended, and that it includes a one license solution.
Some of you may know that the key part of this bill
is to make it easier to get low cost generic drugs to developing countries.
And that key part was actually taken out by a parliamentary committee a couple of weeks ago.
So we need to now keep pressure on our MPs to get it put back in the bill
and then get the bill passed.
We're all going to rush to the centre and we're gonna drop down.
We're gonna stay in that position until we get the signal to get back up,
we move back to our corners and then we'll repeat this again when the next scramble is on.
[HIGH ENERGY DANCE MUSIC...]
[CHANTING: WHAT DO WE WANT? ACCESS! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!...]
We're now with Richard Elliot, the Executive Director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
Um, Richard, what are we doing here tonight?
We've been "dying in" in the middle of this intersection
to call attention to the fact that parliament needs to take action on a bill that's in front of it
that will help get access to more affordable drugs for people with AIDS
and other health problems in developing countries.
There seemed to be a lot of Canadian support in passing the bill,
why do you think there is resistance from the government?
[Tim McCaskell, AIDS Action Now! member]
I think the government, uh, is in the pocket of the brand name pharmaceutical industry
that doesn't want this passed
because it gives them more leverage to sell their higher proced drugs.
[Jolene Cushman, Die-in organizer]
There's been a lot of resistance about companies being able to reduce
to make more money, um,
there have been arguments about there not being enough infrastructure,
or, that there, they think there's other systemic factors that are gonna get in the way.
But honestly?
Being able to produce and export these drugs will make a difference.
What's the Canadian consciousness right now on the bill?
Like, do people want to support it?
Or do they want to deny it?
Well, about a year ago actually, there was a national poll done
by a number of organizations that work on global health and development issues,
and they found that 80% of Canadians support parliament taking action.
What does this mean, uh, for the lives of people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS?
Well, uh, it's proven that anti retrovirals make a huge difference, um,
there's a huge incidence of childhood infection of HIV and AIDS,
and 50% of those children will die by the age of 2,
but anti-retroviral medications can save lives of 75% of those children.
From today until, um, this week or next week when the bill is passed,
what can, sort of, Torontonians and Canadians do?
I think you should be phoning your, uh, federal members of parliament,
telling them you back this bill,
and telling them to, uh, do everything they can
to make sure that the, uh, bill is amended the way that it needs to be done
to make it effective, and that it gets passed.
[HIGH ENERGY DANCE MUSIC...]