A Liberal motion (whipped vote) to include contraception within family planning programs for developing nations has been defeated. As a Canadian development aid worker currently living in Africa, this is absolutely shameful. I even had a few Zambian co-workers question me on Canada’s logic. How can we, as people of the Western industrialized world (especially as Canadians), continue to claim our progressive knowledge on issues such as health care when working with people in developing nations, when even our own government is stuck in a swamp of decades past. This makes me sick to my stomach.Shame, especially on those Liberals who either didn’t show up for the vote, or abstained from voting. Below is a photo I took near a high school deep in the villages of rural Zambia. The message on this outdated government HIV/AIDS awareness billboard, in my opinion, is no different than what our Canadian government and legislators are promoting.
