Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to present two petitions, both of which contain many thousands of signatures gathered through the Beads of Hope Campaign, organized by the United Church of Canada.
The petitioners call upon Parliament to use its influence in international financial institutions to cancel multilateral debt of impoverished countries, to cancel bilateral debt that developing countries owe to Canada, to continue to increase Canada's official development assistance to meet the goal of 0.7% of gross national income, while increasing support for the United Nations global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and to promote sustainable development strategies prepared in-country with a high level of civil society input and involvement.
The petitioners also call upon Parliament to ensure that patents or trade related intellectual property rights do not block access to public goods like life-saving medicines.
They further call upon Parliament to double funding to the federal government's domestic program, the Canadian Strategy on HIV-AIDS, to address HIV-AIDS in Canada.