Mr. Speaker, I am very honoured to table just one small part of a very large petition, 32,000 names in total, organized by the Canadian Grandmothers for Africa. This grassroots movement advocates a need to help the grandmothers of Africa and the approximately 13 million children who they are raising, orphaned because of HIV and AIDS.
I want to thank the very hard work of people like Myrtle Blinn, Doreen Larouche, Barbara Nolen and Eva Dawson, who are all from Ottawa, as well as Linda Watson of Winnipeg, who have helped make this one of the most successful petitions in our nation's history.
I urge the government to follow their advice, which is to ensure that we finally reach that goal of 0.7% of our GNP for international development that we start to flow money for helping people with AIDS, TB and malaria, and that we start advancing drugs through legislation to ensure access to cheaper generic drugs to help people around the world in this situation.