Productions: Panoscope

Panoscope . Media Briefings . Island Beat . Our Own Voice . Le P'tit Nouvelliste
Order Publications

Panoscope Articles Index

Immigrants from developing Countries blamed for increased spread of HIV infection in Canada

By Patricia Watson, Panos Caribbean

Toronto, 18 August 2006 (Panos) - Immigrants from developing countries with high rates of HIV infection, in particular from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, have been blamed for contributing to the spread of HIV in Canada. At least one writer for a Canadian daily newspaper has gone on record about the issue and in a sweeping attack, has also accused gay men of contributing to the spread of HIV in Canada, due to their irresponsible sexual behaviour.

Margaret Wente, columnist for The Globe and Mail, on Tuesday, August 15, charged that Canada is importing HIV and the country’s immigration policy is contributing to the spread of the disease, which takes a significant health and social toll on the country.

However, Dr. Robert Carr, Board Member of Caribbean Vulnerable Communities, CVC, one of several members of the Caribbean attending the 16th AIDS conference in Toronto, Canada, said Ms. Wente’s position is tantamount to global quarantine, which is neither practical nor possible.

“I think that (her position) is deeply misguided and that she misunderstands the complexity of the issues,” he stated. “The world community has been responding to the HIV epidemic since the mid 1980s and we have tried many strategies and most of them have failed. Where they have succeeded is because there has been a certain insight in the drivers of the epidemic. And there have been policies and programmes to address those drivers, and those policies have worked,” he maintained.

Ms. Wente claims that personal behaviour and responsibility drives the HIV epidemic much more than other “root causes.” Especially among minorities, activists have identified causes such as human rights violations, racism, poverty and despair.

However, Dr. Carr, counters that epidemiology has proven that HIV does spread fastest and most viciously among marginalized populations.

“Their marginalization drives them away from information, drives them away from being able to access the kind of support that would allow them to address their vulnerability. In order for that to happen, the society has to address its own discrimination,” he stated.

According to Dr. Carr, stigmatizing immigrants and refugees is an old tactic, which has been consistently misleading in terms of understanding how the epidemic works.

While he agrees that HIV moves with people, he said locking people in or locking them out could not control the epidemic.

“The epidemic is not controlled by repressing groups or stigmatizing them or labeling them, it is controlled by providing support for programmes to reach groups who are more infected or affected.

“To exclude immigrants is not an effective prevention policy,” he maintained. Even if you lock me out of Canada as an immigrant because I am HIV positive, that is not going to stop HIV from spreading among local people. HIV is spread through multiple dynamics among people, which includes sexual contact, needle sharing etc.” Dr. Carr explained.

Dr. Carr acknowledged that there have been reports that some members of gay communities in the developed world are no longer practicing safe sex. This, he said is worrying. He said this is partly due to the increased availability and affordability of anti-retroviral drugs, which suppresses some of the symptoms of HIV and makes HIV positive persons more likely to ignore the fact that they have an infectious disease. In addition, he said they are hardly seeing anyone becoming sick and dying of the HIV and AIDS.

However, he says the majority of those offenders are young people and that safe sex messages should be revamped to be applicable and effective to the new generation. (End/Panos/170806)