A year ago, we launched a petition calling on the provincial government to support the creation of supervised drug consumption sites in Ottawa. Since then, hundreds of people have signed their support for this life-saving health care initiative.

Now we're preparing to submit our petition to the Ontario Legislature. Before we do, we're asking you to help strengthen our call with a final push to gather as many signatures as possible.

Download and print our petition and take it to work, school, or to visit your friends & neighbours. At the end of the week, get in touch with us and we'll arrange to receive the signatures you've collected.

Or volunteer to join us next weekend for a petition blitz. To mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of Insite in Vancouver, we will head to the ByWard Market on September 21 & 22 to hand out information about safer consumption sites and gather signatures from people on the street.

Provincial governments in B.C. and Quebec have already shown their support for supervised consumption services. It's time that politicians in Ontario stood up for the health and well-being of people who use drugs, and the communities they live in.

Thank you for taking action!

At the Overdose Awareness Day rally held Friday in Ottawa, Gilles and Kelly from DUAL read the following statement, recognizing the accomplishments of harm reduction advocates over the past year and calling on the city to meet further demands for the health and safety of people who use drugs.

CSCS stands firmly with DUAL and supports the call to health care leaders and politicians to take action now to prevent further deaths in our community.

"Before we state our demands, we want to recognize some important progress that has been made over the last year in the City of Ottawa. A year ago, on Overdose Awareness Day we demanded access to naloxone a safe drug that immediately reverses opiate overdoses and prevents death. Over the last year Ottawa Public Health rolled out the peer overdose prevention program which gave access to naloxone at the street level. While we need greater access to naloxone, we must recognize that this is a big step that came from the demands of our communities."

"Last year we also demanded greater access to overdose statistics from the provincial coroner. We now have greater access to the numbers of people who have died from overdose related causes. Again, this came from the demands of our communities."

Overdose Awareness Day 2013 demands

• Safer injection services now! Overdose deaths can be prevented, but not if the person is alone.
• Open access to Naloxone
• We need evidence-based health care and treatment that is accessible.
• We need to end the stigma against people who consume drugs. We need to strengthen our community through evidence and action.
• We need to treat drug use as health issues instead of using criminal punishment. We want our dollars spent on health care and housing.

CBC coverage of the Overdose Awareness Day rally held August 30, 2013 at the Human Rights Monument in Ottawa.

Hope In the Fight asks: What is Insite?

As North America's first supervised injection site, Insite provides life-saving health care services to a marginalized community in Vancouver. It's also a model for success for similar services in Ottawa, and across Canada.

We are marking International Overdose Awareness Day 2013 in Ottawa on Friday August 30th, and invite you to join us.

The event will start at 11am at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin St. in front of City Hall with a call to action and speeches.

At noon, we will walk to Parliament Hill for the performance of an Overdose Awareness Day song by local artist Michael Dalton, followed by a moment of silence to remember those who have lost their lives to overdose.

For more information, visit Ottawa Overdose Awareness Day on Facebook.

Overdose Awareness Day has been a key remembrance event for those who have died from fatal drug overdoses since 2001. For Overdose awareness day thousands of people worldwide will stand alongside the friends and families of fatal overdose victims to reflect on those who have been lost. The event is organized on the understanding that no-one need feel shame or disgrace over a drug overdose.

Overdose Awareness Day offers all who have been affected by overdose a chance to publicly mourn and help the wider community understand that fatal overdose profoundly affects mainstream society.