The PM snubs the AIDS forum

Boos and catcalls to Prime Minister Harper for declining an invitation to open the International AIDS Conference in Toronto in August. The biennial forum attracts 20,000 scientists, journalists, activists and victims of the disease. It was an embarrassment to this country when Jean Chretien failed to attend in 1996, the last time it was held in this country, and it's an embarrassment now.

Mr. Harper recently stated the biggest problem facing the world's policy makers is terrorism. I would think it was global warming, but his government has no policy on that issue and didn't even include it in its five key priorities. Now it seems a disease that kills three million people a year doesn't even rate opening a conference. The PM's detachment from the big issues facing humanity is matched only by George W. Bush's.