Critical public health ethics and Canada's role in global health.

This commentary introduces critical public health ethics as an innovative lens for considering Canada's role in global health. Arising from the relatively young field of public health ethics, this analytic perspective sheds light on questions regarding public health policy, research and practice that often remain shaded from view because of traditional ways of thinking about public health. The advantage of a critical public health ethics lens is illustrated through the example of Canada's role in scaling up access to HIV treatments in developing countries.