MAKE POVERTY HISTORY - 2005

News Release

For immediate release: June 6, 2005

Prominent Canadians Join International Celebrities in Calling on the G8 Finance Ministers to Help Make Poverty History

Bono, Brad Pitt, Bob Geldof and Archbishop Desmond Tutu are joined by the Hon. Flora MacDonald, former Minister of External Affairs, Nobel Laureate John Polanyi, authors Margaret Atwood and June Callwood and others in an open letter to Finance Minister Ralph Goodale as he heads off to this week’s G8 Finance Ministers’ meeting in London.

The open letter, to be published June 7 in a number of G8 country newspapers, is calling on the Finance Ministers to deliver on aid, trade and debt commitments. Specifically, Goodale is being asked to “set a binding timetable for Canada to reach the 0.7 aid target by 2015 and ensure that the aid is focused on the poorest people; to cancel 100% of the debts owed by the poorest countries; and deliver on trade justice.”

“With a child dying every three seconds from extreme poverty and with the world’s leaders set to meet in just a few weeks’ time at the G8 meeting in Scotland, the Finance Ministers could signal that the world’s richest countries are ready to live up to their commitments to end poverty, “ says Gerry Barr, President and CEO of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation and Co-chair of the Make Poverty History Campaign.

People from across the G8 countries will be able to join in expressing their demands to world leaders. The publication of the open letters is being accompanied by the launch of e-mail campaigns in several of the G8 countries. In Canada, e-mails to Goodale can be sent via the Make Poverty History web site (www.makepovertyhistory.ca).

"In Québec, we are mobilizing the supporters of Un monde sans pauvreté : Agissons!, the Québec arm of the international campaign to make poverty history, and asking them to join by sending a message to the Minister of Finance,” said Maria-Luisa Monreal, co-chair of the Make Poverty History campaign.

The open letter will appear in publications including France’s Le Monde, Britain’s The Guardian, Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the US’s Washington Times and in Canada in the Regina Leader Post, the Globe and Mail, the Vancouver Sun and the Ottawa Citizen.

For more information contact:

Katia Gianneschi
Media Relations
(613) 241-7007 ext. 311
media@makepovertyhistory.ca