Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Yes, our government is embarrassing us

The Conservative government continues to be stupid about the Vancouver safe injection site.
... the World Health Organization issued a new guide for countries on how to best tackle the epidemic of HIV-AIDS that strongly endorsed a broad array of harm-reduction measures, including safe-injection sites.
[Canadian minister of health] Mr. Clement said that it is up to each country to decide what measures are appropriate, and “it's not my job to kowtow to orthodoxy.”
. . . Carolyn Bennett, the Liberal public health critic [says]Mr. Clement “opposes supervised injection sites yet says he supports needle exchange, which makes no medical sense.”
She said the Conservative government's stand is driven by ideology, not compassion, and accused Mr. Clement of “embarrassing Canada” on the world stage.
Funny, isn't it, that safe injection sites have now become "orthodoxy". Canada should be taking some credit for leading the world in developing safe injection sites, but the Conservatives just can't change their ideas.
And there is something very strange about this article, too -- the headline reads "Public supports shutting injection site, Ottawa says" but the article makes no reference to any public opinion surveys or to public opinion at all, only to the Conservative government belief that the safe injection site is not "acceptable".
The people making comments on the article pick up on this right away. Commenter Nathan Cool writes:
This just a bold-faced lie! Disgusting. The public supports In-Site.. and who cares if it does?? Science does!
This is about life and death... and I don't mean zombie Jesus riding a dinosaur.

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