A lot of attention has been focused on the "Save Mass Effect" petition on Change.org, which has now drawn over 300,000 signatures collectively calling on Electronic Arts to make a new Mass Effect game.

But there's another petition in the works, asking the government of Canada to save BioWare—the people, not the product—and while it only has a tiny fraction of names attached to it, it's enough that the Canadian government will actually have to look at it.

Unlike the Change.org petition, this one is official, in that it's actually part of the legislative process: Public petitions like e-7989, as it's formally known, are "used to draw attention to an issue of public concern. They ask the House of Commons, the Government of Canada, a minister or a member to take or refrain from taking some action."

As I write this, the petition is nosing toward 3,000 signatures, not a huge amount but enough to trigger the next step in the process. Once an electronic petition has at least 500 valid signatures—that is, the signature of a Canadian citizen or resident—it's certified, at which point the Member of Parliament representing the petitioner can either present it during Routine Proceedings, or file it with the Clerk of the House.

" Electronic petitions can be short-circuited by the dissolution of Parliament: Paper petitions can be re-presented to the House even if they were certified by a previous Parliament, but electronic petitions are wiped and must be restarted afresh.

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