Dr. Sean Rourke, director of REACH Nexus at MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital, speaks with The Canadian Press about the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT) announcement that it will close in 2026.
Citing ongoing financial pressures, broader shifts in the health-care system, and transformative medical advances that have reduced demand for its services, ACT—which describes itself as Canada’s oldest HIV service agency—says it will shut its doors next year after 42 years of operation.
Dr. Rourke said HIV prevention and awareness campaigns have historically overlooked Black and Indigenous populations outside of urban centres.
A study published this year in the Canadian Journal of Public Health found that Black men were 66 per cent less likely, and Indigenous men were 43 per cent less likely, than white men to be aware of pre-exposure prophylaxis, a life-saving HIV prevention medication.
Rourke said service agencies born out of the initial response to the AIDS epidemic were designed to focus exclusively on HIV because of the stigma and discrimination patients faced. As a result, he said, some of these agencies have struggled to integrate into the broader health-care system.
“If it’s not part of a larger system, then it’s disconnected, then people are gonna fall through the cracks, particularly those who are vulnerable, don’t speak the language, don’t navigate it well,” he said.
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