Good News Everyone!

I’m going to be at the rally in Ottawa on September 19th.

Thanks to the generosity of a number of individuals, I will be going to the Veteran’s Mefloquine Rally in Ottawa this September. In fact, I will be in Ontario for a week and a half leading up to the rally. So, I’m looking forward to spending some time personally talking to and getting to know some of the veterans that I have written about, and meeting a lot of people face to face for the first time.

Claude Lalancette will be hosting me while I’m there, and has told me that I need only bring a writing instrument and a camera, but I’m thinking I clean socks and underwear might be an awesome idea too.

It was Claude who, on September 19th, 2016, began his first hunger strike on Parliament Hill in protest of the treatment he had received at all levels while trying to have his concerns addressed. He was either ignored ar treated as an inconvenience at the bureaucratic level and then later at the ministerial level, and he had finally had enough. He demanded to be heard, only to later be placated with promises that were never intended to be kept.

He planted seeds on Parliament Hill that Marj Matchee would begin tending the following year. She organized and held the first Veteran’s Mefloquine Rally on Parliament Hill on the 19th of September 2017.

This year, the third annual Veteran’s Mefloquine Rally will show proof that Marj’s hard work has nurtured those seeds into an ever growing garden, that will soon begin to bear fruit. Around the world, those whose lives have been ruined by mefloquine or tafenoquine are starting to come together, and their voices are starting to be heard.

I’m hoping that in cities around the world, from Washington, D.C. to Sydney, Australia, people will mark the first International Quinism Awareness Day by letting their voices be heard in rallies like the one in Ottawa.

I’m excited to be covering this event, and I’ll be bringing you more of this story and others in the days to come. Again, my deepest gratitude to everyone who sponsored this trip.

D.B.

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In case you were wondering, yes I am a fan of Futurama and I’m glad I finally got to use Professor Hubert Farnsworth’s catch-phrase as a title. Now I’ll have to come up with a way to write something that will be titled after my other favorite catch-phrase from the show, Bite My Shiny Metal Ass.