Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

Tom Cochrane wants you to help make poverty history at the 2006 AIDS Conference: August 2006

The eyes of the world will be on Toronto August 13 to 18 at the XVI International AIDS Conference. This meeting brings together thousands of delegates from around the globe and Canada’s role in fighting the AIDS pandemic will be under the spotlight.

Over 40 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS and 95% of these people are living in the developing world. Poverty fuels the AIDS pandemic and is making millions more poor. To address the AIDS crisis, world leaders must take action to make poverty history.

At the G8 meeting in 2005, heads of state promised to reduce debt loads of the poorest countries. Unfortunately, the G8 plan will help only one-third of the countries with high HIV rates, and just 13% of the debts of 60 countries overwhelmed by AIDS will be cancelled.

The G8 leaders also promised AIDS treatment for everyone who needs it by 2010. The U.N. estimates that an additional $5 billion is needed in 2006, and an added $7 billion in 2007, in order to meet the goal of universal access to treatment. So far the G8 leaders have not put forward the money needed to do the job. Stephen Lewis, United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, has called this a scandalous betrayal of the G8 commitments.

Visit makepovertyhistory.ca and send an email to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and your MP. Tell them you expect our Prime Minister to show up - and show leadership - at the International AIDS Conference.

The Prime Minister should show the world that Canada wants to beat the pandemic and make poverty history.

Tom Cochrane

via email

In somewhat related news, the City of Las Vegas takes a different approach to making poverty history …

Las Vegas makes it illegal to feed … the homeless

LAS VEGAS — In an effort to curb charity that is having unintended consequences, Las Vegas city council has made it illegal to give food to homeless people in city parks.

Residents complained that the large numbers of homeless gathering in the parks make it impossible for others to use them, said city spokesman David Riggleman.

“We’re trying to empathize with both camps,” he said. “We’re hoping we can improve their lives and improve the lives of people living around the park, some of whom have people urinating and defecating in front of their door.”

The law, which went into effect Thursday, targets so-called “mobile soup kitchens.” It carries a maximum penalty of a $1,000 (U.S.) fine and six months in jail.

Mr. Riggleman said that by shutting down such soup kitchens, homeless people will be encouraged to go to a centre or charity that offers services such as mental health evaluations or job placement.

Gail Sacco, who operates a mobile soup kitchen seven days a week, said the city doesn’t have adequate homeless services and that she is undeterred.

“There’s no way for people to get out to those services in triple-digit weather,” she said. “My plan is to do anything I feel is needed to keep these people alive.”

The law defines a homeless person as an indigent “whom a reasonable ordinary person would believe to be entitled to apply for or receive assistance.”

American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada lawyer Allen Lichtenstein said the language makes the law unenforceable.

“The ordinance is clearly unconstitutional and nonsensical,” he said. “How are you going to know without a financial statement who’s poor and who’s not poor?”

“It means they can discriminate based on the way people look,” Mr. Lichtenstein said.

FRANCISCA ORTEGA, Associated Press

source: The Globe and Mail