Health Freedom Victory in Canada - For Now

Minneapolis, MN, June 23, 2008 - Citizens for Health stands in solidarity with its Canadian allies in celebrating a victory in the fight for health freedom.

Minneapolis, MN, June 23, 2008 - As staunch supporters of an individual's right to choose what nutritional supplements to take, what health care practitioners to see, and to access the information necessary to make responsible health decisions, Citizens for Health stands in solidarity with its Canadian allies in celebrating a victory in the fight for health freedom. The Canadian Parliament adjourned for the summer without debating or passing bills C-51 and C-52, bills that could have overturned long standing legal precedent protecting Canadians’ health freedom.
 
If passed, these bills would have:

• Made it an offense not to follow the instructions of a Health Canada Inspector regardless of whether that direction creates a health risk. Natural Health Practitioners who were told to stop providing a treatment would have been committing an offense if they continued to help their patients.  Manufacturers of Natural Health Products (NHPs) would have been committing an offense if they continued to provide products people rely upon for their health.  In effect, Bill C-51 would have enabled Inspectors without medical training to make health decisions;
• Expanded the scope of the definition of “sell” in a manner that would have included single sales of compounded NHPs by natural health practitioners;
• Allowed trade agreements and foreign laws to be imposed without Parliamentary scrutiny;
• Required pre-approval by Health Canada of all “therapeutic products” regardless of risk profile.  The only exceptions would have been by regulation on a single narrow ground;
• Increased fines for violations by an unprecedented leap of 500 and 1000 times. Directors and officers would have been made personally liable.  Few in the NHP Community could have survived a prosecution if Bill C-51 had passed;
• Allowed Inspectors to seize private property for any reason, for any length of time, and without judicial oversight or pre-approval;
• Allowed Inspectors to destroy seized property without Court approval;
• Made property owners liable for seizure, transportation and destruction costs regardless of whether the seizure and destruction was justified.

However, this is only a respite; these bills are sure to resurface during the fall session. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”, and activists for health freedom must remain vigilant if we, and are Canadian allies, are to preserve our access to the supplements and nutrients we choose and the health practitioners we wish to see.
That’s why we encourage CFH members to spread the word far and wide, and especially to contact friends and family north of the border and urge them to learn about C-51 and C-52, and to be ready to defend their freedom once again this fall.

See www.NHPPA.org for more information and opportunities to take action.