Making our mark this World Tuberculosis Day
This World Tuberculosis Day, Stop TB Canada worked alongside domestic and global partners to honour the millions of people affected by tuberculosis (TB) and to raise public and parliamentary awareness about this devastating disease. This year’s #YesWeCanEndTB call-to-action sought to make progress on realizing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of eliminating TB by 2030 by asking Canada to re-commit to ending TB at home and around the world. With the assistance of dedicated volunteers and partners, we made our voices heard. See below to learn more about our impact this World TB Day, including raising awareness, building political champions, and holding the Canadian government accountable.
Raising awareness for tuberculosis
Stop TB Canada joined our partners, including Results Canada and their committed volunteers, to successfully illuminate 45 prominent Canadian landmarks red on World TB Day. This movement is a public demonstration and symbol of nationwide concern and dedication to eliminating TB at home and abroad. TB advocates secured three mayoral proclamations, wrote letters to the editor, engaged with news media, and urged Canada to invest in TB elimination efforts on social media.
In the lead-up to World TB Day, Stop TB Canada hosted an #EndTB webinar featuring several distinguished speakers to discuss the actions TB advocates can take to have a significant impact on TB elimination in Canada and abroad. Watch the recording of the webinar here.
Building political champions
Ahead of World TB Day, Stop TB Canada met with Canadian parliamentarians to educate political officials about TB as a domestic and global health issue, build political TB champions, and foster the political will to end TB everywhere.
Stop TB Canada met with parliamentarians across party lines, including MP Kelly Block, MP Francesco Sorbara, MP Arif Virani, MP Ziad Aboultaif, MP Gary Vidal, and MP Michael McLeod, whom we’d like to thank for their support and engagement with our mission.
Special thanks to MP Pam Damoff, who raised awareness about TB on March 22, by making a statement in the House of Commons to publicly recognize World TB Day and acknowledge the hard work of TB advocates. Watch MP Pam Damoff’s statement in the House here.
Another special thanks to the Honourable Minister of International Development, Harjit Sajjan, who acknowledged World TB Day and the Canadian government’s commitment to TB elimination by 2030 on Twitter. See the Minister’s tweet about World TB Day here.
#ItsTimeToEndTB parliamentary reception
On March 23, many of our partners connected with parliamentarians across party lines to celebrate Canada’s efforts towards TB elimination and discuss what further action is needed to achieve this goal. We would like to thank MPs Pam Damoff, Gary Vidal, and Lori Idlout for sponsoring the event and speaking to the urgent need for Canada to address the TB crisis, at home and abroad.
We would also like to thank Minister of International Development, Harjit Sajjan, and Minister of Prairies Economic Development and Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, Dan Vandal, for joining the event and demonstrating their support for TB elimination efforts. The event highlighted how ending TB is a non-partisan issue – something that everyone should support.
Special thank you to our keynote speaker, Stop TB Canada’s co-chair, Tina Campbell. Tina provided a captivating yet heartbreaking personal account of Canada’s history of tuberculosis. Thank you for sharing your story.
“TB isn’t an issue of this country's past – it is an issue of the present.” - Tina Campbell
Holding the government accountable
Stop TB Canada is proud of the progress made on TB elimination thus far and appreciates the efforts made by our political TB champions. However, we acknowledge that more must be done to achieve our goals. Stop TB Canada is dedicated to continuing to work alongside our partners, political champions, and volunteers to advocate for ending TB everywhere. Stop TB Canada is committed to holding the Government of Canada accountable to its domestic and international commitments to eliminate TB. Last year, we launched the Canadian TB Tracker to monitor Canada’s progress toward these goals. We have since updated the TB Tracker with the most recent data. View the updated Canadian TB Tracker here.
As we move forward from World TB Day, several opportunities remain on the horizon for significant progress toward elimination goals. Stop TB Canada continues to call for Canada to have a strong presence in the upcoming United Nations High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis set for September and to become a global leader in TB elimination. At home, we continue to advocate for a National Tuberculosis Elimination Strategy. In support of this call to action, we have collected signatures from Members of Parliament across all party lines for a letter that we will send to the Honourable Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos. Thank you to all members of parliament who have signed this letter so far.
Stop TB Canada is proud of our impact made on World TB Day and is excited to propel this momentum forward to continue advocating for a world free from tuberculosis!