Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR)

As we approach our 37th anniversary as a foundation, last Friday we hosted an intimate gathering in appreciation of the remarkable community support that has heralded our mission for almost four decades.

As an independent charitable foundation, CANFAR relies on the generosity of our patrons, sponsors and donors large and small to fund our innovation research grants, strategic investments in implementation projects, national awareness platforms, and programs to increase testing and linkage to care for under-resourced communities.

We’re here because you’ve been here—standing up for our cause and bringing in connections, resources, opportunities, partnerships, strategies and more so that we can act boldly and swiftly to end new transmissions of this virus and to improve the health outcomes for the over 39 million people globally, and over 63,000 people in Canada, living with HIV today.

To the Gotlieb family—thank you for opening your hearts and your home to host this meaningful event for our . You will forever have our gratitude for everything you’ve done for CANFAR over the years.

Pics by George Pimentel

We're so excited to announce that TD has generously pledged $300,000 over the next three years through its corporate citizenship platform, the TD Ready Commitment, to support the growth and expansion of CANFAR’s National Youth Awareness platform, Sexfluent.ca.

Learn more about this amazing partnership and our mission to educate youth about sexual health and HIV prevention practices on the blog.

TD Bank Group supports CANFAR’s youth sexual health education through Sexfluent.ca | CANFAR Sexfluent to receive $300,000 over 3 years to amplify the reach and engagement among Canada’s youth in their sexual health. CANFAR is excited to announce that TD Bank Group (TD) has generously pledged $300,000 over the next three years through its corporate citizenship platform, the TD Ready Commi...

Huge thanks to the Ottawa Rideau Speedos for making CANFAR one of this year's beneficiaries for the annual Swimeauthon! If you're in Ottawa, sign up to swim for a cause or simply come on down to cheer on the swimmers!

Join us for the swimEAUthon 24 August. This is our annual fundraiser to continue our community involvement. This event will raise funds for two of our community’s important organizations: CANFAR and The Ten Oaks Project. Both these organizations have a significant impact on the Ottawa/Gatineau gay community and we feel that it is important to support their efforts. In the past nine SwimEAUthons, we have raised over $78,000 for various LGBTQ2+ groups in the area with up to 40 swimmers participating annually.

Sign up on our website to join us this year!

season isn't over! Join the CANFAR at both Fierté Montréal / Montréal Pride and Capital Pride • Fierté dans la Capitale for two fierce & fab celebrations. MTL on Aug. 8 and YOW on Aug. 17. Details below and in the scroll!

Fierté Montreal – Thursday, August 8, 2024 – 6pm to 9pm – at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth – feat. Tika the Iggy inc. and the encroyable Misty Waterfalls. Tix $50 Eventbrite (https://bit.ly/3WI9hjZ); free for paying Legacy members (email [email protected]). Hosted by Joshua Fagan & Jacques Lapierre.

Fierté Capital Pride – Saturday, August 17, 2024 – 11am to 2pm – Margarita Restaurant – music by White Rabbit Events – performance by CANFAR National Ambassador Joey Arrigo – includes brunch buffet & $10 drink tix. Tix $25 on Eventbrite (https://bit.ly/4diRqWc); free for paying Legacy members (email [email protected]). Hosted by Terry Grace & DG Stringer.

We can't wait to dance the night away with the legendary Crystal Waters when she headlines the Official After Party on Thursday, November 28, 2024 Four Seasons Hotel Toronto, thanks to Entertainment Partner Ferrari Group.

Beyond her chart-topping success, Crystal Waters is celebrated for her advocacy and support for various causes, including HIV awareness and research. Her performances are not just about entertainment but also serve as a platform to raise awareness and inspire positive change.

Due to capacity limits, separate After Party tickets are not available. Buy your tables or dinner tickets for BSE28 for access to the After Party: CANFAR.com/BSE

Crystal Waters - Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless) (Official Music Video) REMASTERED IN HD!Music video by Crystal Waters performing Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless). (C) 1991 PolyGram Records Inc.

Kick-off Capital Pride • Fierté dans la Capitale at the CANFAR Legacy Project brunch & dance, featuring music by White Rabbit Ottawa, a special performance by Joey Arrigo, and a spiced-up buffet by Margarita Restaurant!

Tickets are only $25 – free for paying members – and include your brunch buffet and $10 drink specials. All proceeds go to support CANFAR's national youth awareness program, Sexfluent.ca!

Head over to our Eventbrite page to get your tickets now, or if you're a paying Legacy Project member please RSVP [email protected] for your comp'd ticket(s).

Get tix now: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/canfar-legacy-project-capital-pride-brunch-tickets-941222480777?aff=oddtdtcreator

CANFAR Legacy Project Capital Pride Brunch Let's celebrate Pride at the CANFAR Legacy Project Capital Pride Brunch on Saturday, August 17, 2024! Tickets $25 & includes brunch buffet.

It's time! Tables & tickets for the 28th edition of Bloor Street Entertains are on sale now at CANFAR.com/BSE!

Our marquee World AIDS Day fundraiser is set to take over Bloor-Yorkville Business Improvement Area on Thursday, November 28, 2024, culminating in the official After Party once again at the glorious Four Seasons Hotel Toronto and headlined by dance music legend Crystal Waters.

will serve to highlight CANFAR’s Bold Actions to end the HIV epidemic in Canada and focus on funding strategic implementation projects for our communities.

Back by popular demand and better than ever is the annual BSE Silent Auction, which this year launches Friday, November 15, 2024. * mark your calendars *

Head directly to CANFAR.com/BSE to secure your tables today.

Get your tickets now and join our mission to end the HIV epidemic in Canada!

CANFAR marches for millions in the Pride Toronto parade, as captured by CANFAR ambassador and brilliantly talented photographer living with HIV, Justin Anantawan ( on IG).

Whether it was for onlookers lining Yonge Street, TV viewers at home or audiences on IG & TikTok, we proudly marched to echo CANFAR's mission to end HIV in Canada and to remind everyone that:

1) HIV is still an epidemic, with a 25% increase in new cases in Canada;
2) It's okay to have HIV, especially with incredibly effective treatments and U=U;
3) PrEP is not just for gay men, but for everyone who wants to prevent HIV;
4) HIV self-test kits are an important tool to end the epidemic, and we need to keep funding them;
5) And that HIV research saves lives; and will continue to save, better and change the lives of people living with or at-risk of HIV

Thanks to our sponsors The Anndore House, TD, LCBO, ViiV Healthcare, P. Austin Family Foundation, Gowling WLG, Jean Paul Gaultier, Labatt Breweries of Canada, Park Hyatt Toronto, Merck, Gray Collection & IN Magazine.

Join the for the Pride Toronto Parade on June 30!

Meet us at 1:15pm at The Anndore House to get tricked out in your CANFAR Pride apparel, then we'll get positioned for the march.

Please email [email protected] to RSVP to march, and include your t-shirt size and if you're bringing any friends or family along.

Today is HIV Long-Term Survivors Day; a day that commemorates the date when the first cases of AIDS were officially reported in 1981.

This day is set aside to honour and celebrate those who have lived with HIV for many years – like CANFAR National Ambassador Jade Elektra – acknowledging their enduring spirit and the challenges they’ve bravely faced.

What does being a long-term survivor of HIV really mean? It signifies a life lived with a condition that once had little hope for a long future – but today is an easy-to-manage chronic condition.

Research saves lives.

It's HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day and I was diagnosed in 1990. I am blessed to still be here and I am very out about my status because visibility is one of the tools used to fight stigma. I find giving back to the community to be the fuel I need to continue my work and hopefully help others who are living with this disease.

Research update: A new study co-funded by CANFAR, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Research at UHN, and Children's Treatment Network investigates the neurodevelopmental impacts of HIV antiretroviral treatment taken during pregnancy.

Optimizing HIV Care During Pregnancy | UHN Research University Health Network (UHN) is a research hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto and a member of the Toronto Academic Health Science Network. The scope of research and complexity of cases at UHN have made it a national and international source for discovery, education and patient car...

Many thanks to The Star for shining a light this weekend on our May 3rd, record-breaking Can You Do Lunch? feat. the incredible Jully Black. Thank you for helping us raise over $300,000 for our cause!

CANFAR luncheon raises $300,000 for AIDS research The event at the Four Seasons Hotel featured a performance by Jully Black.

APTN National News talks with CANFAR Board Member Jeff Rock and Jessy Dame of the Community-Based Research Centre - CBRC about rising rates of in Canada and its impact on and other marginalized communities. Watch now on APTN's website.

We were one of the last G7 countries to approve HIV self-test kits. We shouldn't be one of the first to cut their funding.

Dr. Sean B. Rourke and CANFAR's CEO Alex Filiatrault spoke with the Toronto Star about the impact this will have on Canada's epidemic.

Canada cancels free HIV self-test program despite ‘alarming’ rise in infections Across Canada cases, of HIV, which can lead to life-threatening AIDS, went up nearly 25 per cent in 2022 compared to a year earlier.

We are thrilled to announce that the Juno Award-winning, "Canada’s Queen of R&B Soul" Jully Black will grace the stage for an intimate performance during the 12th edition of Can You Do Lunch? Four Seasons Hotel Toronto on Friday, May 3, 2024!

A champion for underrepresented communities, we could not think of a more poignant voice in Canadian music to help us focus our attention on equitable access to HIV testing, prevention, treatment and care for under-resourced communities.

As a platinum selling recording artist, Jully's music career has yielded multiple singles reaching the Top 10 pop, R&B and dance music charts. She has taken home Juno and Gemini Awards, earned innumerable industry accolades, was hand selected to sing for the Queen of England and inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2021.

Tickets are just about sold out, so be sure to get yours before they're gone: https://canfar.com/event/cydl-toronto/

The incomparable Billy Newton-Davis talks with ByBlacks.com about learning about his HIV diagnosis on the heels of his first major success—and why advocacy is such an important force for good in our communities.

Never Lose Your Joy: Billy Newton-Davis On Staying Positive While Living With HIV Musician and philanthropist Billy Newton-Davis reflects on his 40 year career while living with HIV.

Notisha Massaquoi is an incredible force for good. Her dedication to supporting Black and racialized communities, especially women, is unwavering and inspiring.

From her work helping launch Women's Health in Women's Hands CHC, the new AYA Circle of Care she established with TAIBU Community Health Centre that launched just the other week on ACB HIV Awareness Day, her HIV research that has discovered outstanding new care models for people living with HIV, her work with CANFAR as one of our Board of Directors, or inspiring students as an Assistant Professor at University of Toronto, there is seemingly nothing Notisha can't or won't do to uplift the communities that are historically underrepresented in Canada's healthcare systems.

Over three decades, Dr. Notisha Massaquoi’s powerful advocacy and leadership has advanced health care for Black communities in Canada.

On February 7, Black history was made. Canada’s first HIV primary health care program for Black community members living with and affected by HIV officially launched: The Aya Circle of Care at Taibu Chc, in partnership with The Black Health Equity Lab (The BHEL).

“We are determined to be the last generation fighting to end AIDS,” Dr. Notisha said during her speech. “It ends with us.”

Dr. Massaquoi is founder (2022) and director of The BHEL, which conducts community-based health research in collaboration with Black communities. It explores the intersections of the social determinants of health and anti-Black racism. The BHEL aims to advance policy, practice and equitable health service delivery.

During her career, Dr. Massaquoi developed several organizations serving Black communities in Canada, including Africans in Partnership Against AIDS (APAA) and Women's Health in Women's Hands CHC, where she was Executive Director for two decades. WHIWH CHC is the only community health centre in North America specializing in primary health care for Black and racialized women.

Since 2021, Dr. Massaquoi has also been a valued member of The Stephen Lewis Foundation Board of Directors.

She also serves on the board of Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR) and has consulted UNAIDS, World Health Organization (WHO), and the UN Social Development Council on the impact of racism in health.

She is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Society at the University of Toronto Scarborough, with appointments in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto and the Department of Family and Community Medicine in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.