HIV rates are on the rise, and yet we know what needs to be done to prevent new transmissions while protecting the health and centering the human rights of people living with and affected by HIV
November 27, 2025 – Ottawa, ON – Today, the HIV Legal Network is joined by people living with HIV and other health experts on Parliament Hill to call for increased leadership and commitment from all levels of government to end the HIV epidemic in this country, including by removing legal and policy barriers to HIV prevention, treatment, and care.
On Monday, World AIDS Day 2025, the HIV Legal Network will launch its latest report, “The State of HIV in Canada: Rights, Progress, and Unfinished Work,” at a time when HIV rates in Canada are on the rise. The report considers Canada’s progress, including provincial and territorial evaluations based on six key metrics from access to prevention and treatment to reporting and evaluation. Together, these paint a picture of how Canada is really doing in the fight to end HIV as a public health threat.
Importantly, Canada has made international commitments to ending HIV, at home and within the global context. Canada has signed onto the 95-95-95 United Nations targets, to ensure that 95% of people living with HIV in Canada know their status, 95% of people who are diagnosed are accessing treatment, and 95% of people on treatment are able to achieve an undetectable viral load, allowing them to live a healthy life and preventing onward transmission. To date in Canada, 89% of people living with HIV know their status, 85% of those people are accessing treatment, and 95% of people on treatment have an undetectable viral load. We must do better.
The rising rate of new cases in Canada is being largely driven by new transmissions in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Certain populations in Canada continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV — including Indigenous people, Black people, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, sex workers, people who have experienced incarceration, and transgender and gender-diverse people.
Today, the HIV Legal Network is also making a number of recommendations for the Government of Canada, including recommendations that consider how to best support:
- the prevention of new HIV transmissions;
- diagnosis, rapid linkage to care, and viral suppression for people living with HIV;
- an enabling legal environment to remove barriers to services; and
- data-driven decision making and accountability to people living in Canada.
You can read the full list of recommendations here, in advance of the release of Monday’s report.
“What our report finds is that after some promising initial progress, Canada’s response to ending HIV has stalled,” say Sandra Ka Hon Chu and Janet Butler-McPhee, Co-Executive Directors of the HIV Legal Network. “We urgently need a renewed commitment by the Government of Canada to ensure equitable access to robust prevention and treatment options, rooted in dignity and human rights.”
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Media Contact:
Dylan DeMarsh, Digital and Strategic Communications Officer, HIV Legal Network
d.dmarsh@hivlegalnetwork.ca