(Ottawa, Canada November 22)
******Urgent - Press Release**********
A huge step forward for informed freedom of choice and
health freedom in Canada has been achieved thanks to last
minute scurrying by Health Canada to avoid the full impact
of the Health Freedom Private Member's Bill C-420. Bill
C-420 has been a dagger aimed at the heart of the health
regulator's bureaucracy for the last two Parliaments.
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Health passed a
Liberal motion November 22, 2005, to effectively kill Bill
C-420 with support from the NDP and Bloc Quebecois (7). Only
the Conservative Party voted against the motion (4).
New regulations proposed by Health Canada would exempt
Natural Health Products from the censorship provisions in
the Food and Drugs Act that act as an outright prohibition
on fact-based, truthful health claims. If the regulations
become law, it would be legal to advertise both the
prevention and treatment (but not the cure) of the 40 or so
diseases listed on Schedule A (heart disease, arthritis,
cancer etc.) of the Food and Drugs Act with food based
medicines.
For decades the national regulator has used Schedule A and
Sections 3.1 and 3.2 of the Food and Drugs Act to
intimidate, criminalize and bankrupt small companies who
have been achieving incredible therapeutic results treating
Schedule A diseases with food-based medicines (Dietary Food
Supplements).
Bill C-420 sought to strike down the unlawful censorship
created in 1934 by repealing sections 3.1 and 3.2 of the
Food & Drugs Act. Introduced in the current parliament by
Dr. Colin Carrie (CPC Oshawa) the bill was originally
introduced in the previous parliament by Dr. James Lunney
(CPC Nanaimo-Alberni).
The Alliance of Natural Health Suppliers (ANHS), Freedom of
Choice in Health Care (FCHC), and Friends of Freedom (FOF)
and hundreds of small and medium family enterprises (SMFEs),have
been for years actively supporting the "little bill that
could" force Health Canada to "recognize the overwhelming
body of evidence" that food-based medicines [dietary food
supplements] effectively prevent, treat, and even in some
cases cure many chronic diseases.
"We aren't out of the woods yet though," cautions Peter
Helgason, vice-president of regulatory affairs for ANHS and
FCHC. "Let's see how the Gazette process goes, and more
importantly let's see what Health Canada is up to with
Schedule F" (products available by prescription only).
Hundreds of food-based medicine manufacturers have received
warning letters and stop sale orders recently claiming the
products they have been selling for years or decades contain
"prescription drugs", or more ominously their "precursors",
and are now illegal for sale in Canada.
"Anyone who has been paying attention for the past 10 years
or so knows the power brokers at Health Canada have been
less than enthusiastic about recognizing the many benefits
of natural health products. In fact it seems the recently
created Natural Health Directorate has been constantly
undermined by the Drug Directorate since its inception",
says Helgason. "We'll take what we have for now", he says,
"But we have to keep up the public pressure and we have to
keep the disinfecting light shining into the dark corners of
what the recently fired Health Canada whistle- blower Dr.
Chiv Chopra describes in his new book as a bureaucracy that
is "Corrupt to the Core".
Peter Helgason
www.allianceofnaturalhealthsuppliers.com/
