Mr. Speaker, I would like to draw attention on this first day of December to World AIDS Day. This day brings to mind the significant numbers of individuals affected by this disease, one for which to this day there is still no cure. In North America it is a dramatic fact that AIDS is the top ranking cause of death for people between the ages of 25 and 44.
Health Canada reports that last year alone almost 3,000 Canadians were reported as having contracted the AIDS virus. That is about eight Canadians per day. It is indeed a shocking amount, but what is more shocking is that we are not doing enough to find a cure.
The federal government must strengthen its national AIDS strategy and do more to help researchers across the country who are working to develop an AIDS vaccine, researchers like Dr. Christos
Tsoukas of the Montreal General Hospital whose research is seriously jeopardized by this lack of funding.
We owe it to Canadians, especially to the young people of the country.