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[HIGH ENERGY DANCE MUSIC...]

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Good afternoon. LaLi Mohamed here from Deviant Productions

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where we join you today in one of the busiest intersections in Toronto,

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Dundas Square.

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[HIGH ENERGY DANCE MUSIC...]

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Community members and a coalition of students gathered today to protest Canada's ongoing failure

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to increase accessibility to HIV medicine.

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A "die in" is taking place

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where members hope to shed light

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not only on the many lives lost because of lack of accessibility to this medicine,

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but also to push for motion bill 393 to pass.

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Uh, about two years ago, a bill called Bill c393 was passed

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as a private members bill in parliament,

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and we really want to ensure that it survives,

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that it is amended, and that it includes a one license solution.

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Some of you may know that the key part of this bill

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is to make it easier to get low cost generic drugs to developing countries.

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And that key part was actually taken out by a parliamentary committee a couple of weeks ago.

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So we need to now keep pressure on our MPs to get it put back in the bill

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and then get the bill passed.

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We're all going to rush to the centre and we're gonna drop down.

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We're gonna stay in that position until we get the signal to get back up,

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we move back to our corners and then we'll repeat this again when the next scramble is on.

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[HIGH ENERGY DANCE MUSIC...]

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[CHANTING: WHAT DO WE WANT? ACCESS! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!...]

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We're now with Richard Elliot, the Executive Director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.

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Um, Richard, what are we doing here tonight?

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We've been "dying in" in the middle of this intersection

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to call attention to the fact that parliament needs to take action on a bill that's in front of it

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that will help get access to more affordable drugs for people with AIDS

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and other health problems in developing countries.

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There seemed to be a lot of Canadian support in passing the bill,

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why do you think there is resistance from the government?

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[Tim McCaskell, AIDS Action Now! member]

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I think the government, uh, is in the pocket of the brand name pharmaceutical industry

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that doesn't want this passed

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because it gives them more leverage to sell their higher proced drugs.

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[Jolene Cushman, Die-in organizer]

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There's been a lot of resistance about companies being able to reduce

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to make more money, um,

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there have been arguments about there not being enough infrastructure,

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or, that there, they think there's other systemic factors that are gonna get in the way.

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But honestly?

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Being able to produce and export these drugs will make a difference.

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What's the Canadian consciousness right now on the bill?

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Like, do people want to support it?

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Or do they want to deny it?

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Well, about a year ago actually, there was a national poll done

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by a number of organizations that work on global health and development issues,

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and they found that 80% of Canadians support parliament taking action.

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What does this mean, uh, for the lives of people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS?

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Well, uh, it's proven that anti retrovirals make a huge difference, um,

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there's a huge incidence of childhood infection of HIV and AIDS,

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and 50% of those children will die by the age of 2,

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but anti-retroviral medications can save lives of 75% of those children.

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From today until, um, this week or next week when the bill is passed,

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what can, sort of, Torontonians and Canadians do?

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I think you should be phoning your, uh, federal members of parliament,

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telling them you back this bill,

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and telling them to, uh, do everything they can

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to make sure that the, uh, bill is amended the way that it needs to be done

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to make it effective, and that it gets passed.

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[HIGH ENERGY DANCE MUSIC...]