Montreal without AIDS: clash between the actors

A few months after the International AIDS Conference was held in Montreal, community organizations fighting HIV denounced the inaction of Montreal elected officials and decided to “cut ties”. In a press release (February 14), the Table of Montreal Community Organizations for the Fight against HIV/AIDS (TOMS) announced that it was leaving the Montreal Alliance Without AIDS. This action plan (with the Regional Public Health Department) was set up in 2018, following on from the Paris Declaration, which dates back to 2014. This strategy is also part of the Fast- Track cities. As La Presse canadienne explains, the thirty member organizations of the TOMS denounce the “disengagement of elected Montreal officials” and of “Mayor Valérie Plante” in the fight against AIDS. The organizations say they have been waiting for almost three years for the elected officials to commit to “the realization of the action plan” and to “the intermediate targets of UNAIDS”. In the office of Mayor Valérie Plante, we say we are surprised and disappointed by this withdrawal. “We assure that the fight against the epidemic remains a priority”, indicates The Canadian Press. In addition, community organizations deplore the fact that the main objective of improving the living conditions of marginalized communities seems to be set aside. TOMS members are calling for real commitment and deep work on harm reduction and the fight against the AIDS epidemic so that the disease will be a thing of the past by 2030.