G8 Action Alert!
July
Update: Thanks to everyone for your efforts and actions to try
to ensure that safe abortion and family planning would be included in
Canada's G8 initiative for maternal/child health. Although we all did
our best, Prime Minister Harper and his Conservative Party rejected
evidence in favour of right-wing ideology, at the expense of women's
and children's lives.
As
the host country of the G8 Summit on June 25/26, 2010 in Huntsville Ontario,
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his governing Conservative Party of
Canada
have chosen to champion an initiative to improve maternal and child
health in
developing countries.
However,
this admirable initiative has become deeply mired in the Conservatives’
anti-choice ideology. The government will “consider” including
family planning and contraception in the initiative, while announcing
it will not
fund safe abortion services “under any circumstances” in developing
countries.
Please
take action by engaging in some of the following activities and events.
If your group is organizing a campaign or event, please send us the
details so we can post it here. Thank you!
Please click here to read a
great letter to Prime Minister Harper from a Conservative voter
disenchanted with Harper's no-abortion stance for the G8 initiative.
Take Action!
1.
Sign the
petition
to Parliament to: “Include funding for family planning and
safe
abortion in Canada’s
G8 Maternal/Child Health Initiative.” (Hosted by
Abortion
Rights Coalition of Canada.) We also have a paper petition that can be
printed and mailed. **Online petition
now closed.**
2. Sign
the
petition
to CIDA
and the Prime Minister of Canada to: “Provide
CIDA Funding for IPPF (International Planned Parenthood Federation)" (Hosted by a supporter of IPPF.) **Petition now closed.**
3. Participate in the anna project: a
creative letter-writing project that gives voice to the many faceless
and nameless girls and women in developing countries who die each year
due to lack of access to safe abortion.
4.
Send a letter to
Harper, using the template on Right
On Canada’s website. “Mr. Harper, stop playing politics with
women's lives”.
5.
Send letters to Stephen Harper, Bev
Oda,
Lawrence Cannon, and your MP using points from the Call to Action written by
the Action Canada for Population & Development (ACPD).
6.
Veuillez envoyer une lettre
en français. Voici un modèle
de lettre
ci-joint, de la Fédération
du Québec pour le planning des naissances
(FQPN)
7.
Sign onto the letter to Harper
drafted by the Ad
Hoc Coalition for Women’s Equality and Human Rights, protesting the
exclusion
of funding for safe abortion from the G8 Initiative. Email the Coalition.
8.
Organize a local event in your own
community
(forum, rally, letter-writing campaign, etc.)
9.
Join one or more Facebook groups
that support G8
funding for family planning and safe abortion (listed in order of
number of
members as of May 23):
10.
Stay informed of new developments on
the G8
maternal/child health initiative by visiting/joining:
Global actions:
1.
For groups
outside Canada: Sign the letter urging the government of Canada and
G8
leaders to support the full range of reproductive healthcare, including
family
planning and contraception, safe abortion where legal, and quality
healthcare
for women suffering from complications of unsafe abortion. Contact the National Abortion Federation.
2.
Join
the White
Ribbon Alliance for Safe
Motherhood (WRA), an international coalition that promotes
public
awareness of the need to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for all
women and
newborns in developing and developed countries.
3.
Attend the “Women Deliver”
conference in Washington
DC,
on June 7-9. Women Deliver is a
global advocacy organization bringing together voices from around the
world to
call for action against maternal death.
4.
Attend the “Global
Maternal Health Conference
2010” in New Delhi India,
organized by the Maternal
Health Task Force, on Aug 31 to Sept. 1. The Task Force helps shape
collective efforts to improve
maternal health worldwide, and is supported by the Bill & Melinda
Gates
Foundation.
Attend an Event (or plan
one)
More events will be added regularly, so please
check back!
If you know of an event, or are planning one,
please email us the details so
we can add
it to this
list. Thank you!
Ontario
Wednesday,
June 16, Toronto. Doors 7:30, Panel Discussion 8:00. Clinton's
Tavern, 693 Bloor Street West, Toronto. Admission: $5.
"Speak
the F**k Up" - Women, Children and the G20 agenda. Does Canada
have any business leading the charge? A roundtable discussion hosted by
Judy Rebick. Speakers include: Josephine Grey (LIFT), Antonia Zerbisias
(Toronto Star), and more. Visit www.this.org
or www.rabble.ca for more
information and updates on speakers. Facebook
event listing.
June
18 - 20, Toronto. Friday:
1pm, The Carlu (444 Yonge St @ College). Sat/Sun: 9:30am, Ryerson
University, Engineering Building.
Gender
Justice Summit. Organized by Oxfam: "Taking place in Toronto the
weekend before the G8/G20 meetings, our 2010 gathering will take the
form of a Gender Justice Summit. This dynamic gathering of Oxfam
supporters, academics, advocates, researchers, policy-makers, and
activists from around the world, will be discussing various issues
including: gender based violence, maternal health, poverty, security,
climate change, and food security." The
Gender Justice Summit will run parallel to the People’s Summit.
Saturday, June 19, Toronto. Rally at 1pm at Pitman
Hall, Ryerson University 160 Mutual Street. March to Ministry of
Health/Education 900 Bay Street.
Rally
for Reproductive Justice - Sex education matters for youth,
maternal health includes abortion! Featuring a
spoken word performance by RED SLAM and speakers from The Native Youth
Sexual Health Network, Oxfam, Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics,
Planned Parenthood Toronto, LGBT Youthline. (This is in
conjunction with Oxfam's Gender Justice Summit prior to the Toronto G20
meetings.) For more information, contact Jessica Yee.
Sunday,
June 20, Toronto.
8:00 pm. Alumnae Theatre, 70 Berkeley Street,
Toronto, ON.
Monday, June 21, Toronto. 7pm. 25 Cecil Street (just east
of Spadina, south of College).
"Harper's
attacks on reproductive rights -
at home and abroad." A public forum and panel discussion just
prior to the G8/G20 summit, focusing on the need for G8
funding of safe abortion and family planning, and critiquing the Harper
government's anti-choice stance. Featuring speakers
Jessica Yee,
Ayesha Adhami, Rhonda Roffey, Kelly Holloway, Judy Vashti Persad, and
Carolyn Egan. Organized by the Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics.
Friday, June 25, Toronto. 2:30
pm. Meet at Allan Gardens, corner of Carleton & Sherbourne.
Wheelchair access van: SE corner of Dundas & Yonge at 2:00 PM. Meal
served. Sign language interpretation available.
We are calling on all women and
trans people to join the Gender
Justice contingent as we lead off the Toronto Community Day of Action
March against the G20. We are marching for freedom from all
forms of violence and for control over our bodies and our lives,
including freedom of sexual and reproductive choice, for women and
children, trans and queer people everywhere. We demand funding
for the healthcare we need - including the full range of family
planning options, access to medication and safe, legal abortions for
women, and full access and reproductive choice for all women
everywhere. Bring your signs and banners, pots and pans, whistles
and chants, and march to reclaim our city. We will end with a block
party and tent city.
Gender Justice Group contact: genderjusticeG20@live.ca.
Info about the Toronto Community Day of Action: http://25june.wordpress.com or
416-925-6939. (Other events and actions: http://g20.torontomobilize.org
and http://peoplessummit2010.ca.)
Sunday, June 27, Ottawa. 7:30
pm, doors open at 7:00. The First Unitarian Congregation of
Ottawa, 30 Cleary Avenue. Tickets $20 at the door (cash
only) General Admission. Proceeds to support Planned Parenthood Ottawa.
For more info call PPO (613) 226-3234.
