Petition Impossible: On the eve of the G8, the Canadian government is a bit busy…

Jun 24th, 2010 5:40 PM UTC
By Brie O'Keefe

ONE’s Mark Entwistle with our 58,000 signature strong petition

Yesterday, ONE’s Mark Entwistle delivered our 58,000 signature strong petition calling for 3.5 million new health workers to help mothers and children to the Prime Minister’s Office in Ottawa, Canada.

Unfortunately, photographs aren’t allowed within the Langevin Building, but we have it on good assurance that shortly after this photo was taken Mark was in the building to hand off the wishes of ONE members to the Canadian government.

This delivery presented some unique scheduling difficulties – on the eve of the G8, most senior members of the Canadian government are en route to Hunstville, Ontario, far away from the media centre for civil society organisations in Toronto where ONE will be based during the summit.  So if we wanted to make sure the G8 heard our message before meeting, we needed to do it now, in Ottawa. But scheduling wasn’t easy given that the Prime Minister’s Office had quite a bit on their plates.

Luckily it all worked out for the best. In fact, it almost appeared that the fates were conspiring to test our resolve in delivering our petition as 20 minutes before the delivery Ottawa was hit by an earthquake which caused all parliamentary and government offices to be evacuated!

During the summit ONE will be on the ground, fighting to make sure this G8 has the strongest outcome possible for people living in poverty.  We’ll be keeping you updated through our blog and twitter – so watch this space!

TAGS: Canada, G8, Maternal and Child Health