Tell your MP to stand up for people in crisis
Canada must increase its humanitarian aid funding.
Hard times reveal whether our values stand under strain. They reveal if our solidarity cracks under pressure. And they reveal what kind of country we choose to be.
When things are hard at home, we’re told to look inward. To focus on “us”, not “everyone else.”
We’re told that hopelessness is inevitable; that compassion is a luxury, that our concern should stop at our borders.
We are told that responding to global emergencies prevents us meeting needs at home.
At Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), we have seen the deadly consequences of wealthy countries stepping back when people’s humanitarian needs reach historic highs.
We are already seeing gaps appearing now that international funding is diminishing. Supply chains are being cut, other organizations are being forced to close or leave, and health systems — which are already in crisis — are cracking under the pressure of overwhelming humanitarian need.
Now is the time for more global action, not less. Now is the time for those who can help, to stand with those in need. This is not the time to turn away, but to show solidarity.
Canada must resist the global trend to reduce humanitarian assistance funding. We will always stand with people caught in conflict, epidemics disasters or exclusion from healthcare.
Will you?
TELL YOUR MP
Use the form below to email your Member of Parliament (MP) and urge them to push for an increase to Canada’s humanitarian assistance in the next federal budget in November 2026.
Read the letter
Dear [MP name will go here],
As a constituent in your riding, I am asking for your leadership to ensure Canada does not retreat from its crucial support for people facing urgent humanitarian crises around the world.
Canada has long responded to the most urgent needs of people facing war and crisis. To me, this reflects the best of who we are as a country. At a time when these needs are rising and countries around the world are pulling back, Canada has a choice. We can turn inward, or we can continue a long tradition of showing up when lives are at stake. I hope you will help ensure that Canada chooses leadership, and that this commitment is reflected in Budget 2026.
In Haiti, families are struggling to access food, clean water and basic medical care as violence deepens and essential services collapse. In Sudan, millions of people have been forced from home and mothers are bringing severely malnourished children to overcrowded clinics with nowhere else to go. In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Ebola disease outbreak is spreading through communities already devastated by violence and displacement.
To me, these are not distant crises. They are people like you and me, trying to protect the people they love in impossible circumstances.
At a time when the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and many other countries have chosen to slash their humanitarian budgets, the consequences are already being felt. Around the world, people are being asked to survive war, hunger and disease with less support than before. Health clinics are closing. Food distributions programs are shrinking. Disease outbreaks are becoming harder to contain. Health workers are being forced to do more with less.
Canada must not join this dangerous retreat. We must wholeheartedly reject it and show that turning our backs on people in crisis is not who we are.
Although organizations like Doctors Without Borders rely overwhelmingly on private donations, their teams witness every day the consequences when the global humanitarian system is stretched beyond its limits. But no single organization can meet these needs alone. Strong, flexible humanitarian funding enables other organizations to respond quickly as crises evolve and helps people meet their most urgent needs before emergencies become catastrophes.
That is why I want Canada to restore its humanitarian funding when it matters most.
Canada has reached $1.3 billion in humanitarian assistance before. Restoring to that level of funding today is not a new commitment, but a necessary step that reflects today’s realities and ensures humanitarian organizations can respond wherever people’s needs are greatest.
As the government prepares Budget 2026, I urge you to support restoring Canada’s humanitarian assistance funding to at least $1.3 billion and protecting the flexible funding that helps keep health clinics open, food distribution programs running, clean water flowing and emergency shelter within reach for people caught in crisis.
While others look away, I want Canada to recognize humanitarian assistance as essential, not optional, and continue to show up for people facing war and crisis around the world. I hope I can count on you, as my elected representative, to ensure Canada continues to show leadership and that our commitment to people in crisis does not stop at our borders.
Sincerely, [Your Name]
Advocacy and bearing witness
Speaking out with MSF
MSF has always spoken out about the crises we bear witness to, while advocating for those affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters and exclusion from healthcare.
MSF identifies specific areas where Canadian policymakers and others, can remove the obstacles that prevent people affected by humanitarian contexts receive the care they urgently need.
Access to medicine
In 2019, MSF and our supporters chanted “We protest because we have hope” during protests outside the offices of pharmaceutical corporations. They protested to demand prices for tuberculosis medicines be lowered and therefore drew attention to this otherwise neglected concern. Canadians were among more than 120,000 people who signed a petition that urged the corporation to drop the price of this critical drug.
Advocating for survivors of sexual violence
In 2023, MSF, along with more than 5,000 Canadians signed a letter calling on the Canadian Government to fund the humanitarian response in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo — frequently listed as one of the most dangerous places on Earth to be a woman or girl.
Petitioning parliament to help Democratic Republic of Congo
In 2024, MSF supported the launch of a parliamentary petition requesting the Canadian government increases its humanitarian assistance budget for DRC and to use diplomatic and political tools to help alleviate the suffering of those affected by this crisis.
Drawing a line on genocide in Palestine
In 2025, MSF joined ‘Red Line for Gaza’ demonstrations across Canada and around the world that insisted on an end to genocide in Palestine. More than 26,000 supporters across Canada joined our call to champion the protection of all civilians and healthcare workers and facilities in times of conflict.