Peter Helgason, with his wife and three children, lives in Kamloops British Columbia. It was there, through his employment with the Strauss Herb Company, that he was introduced to the North American Health Freedom Movement.
Strauss Herbs, the “Little Company that Could” had a sales slogan Canadian regulators took a dim view of; “We Cure Heart Disease.” Government agencies froth at the mouth over those companies that use the word “cure.” Peter gained an education about health care claims FAST.
Peter has served in executive and advisory roles in numerous Canadian and US Health Freedom organizations. He has testified, on many occasions, before the Canadian Parliament’s Health Committee as they considered changes to Canada’s Food and Drug Act.
Peter was active in. arguably the high water mark of Canadian Health Freedom – the Health Freedom Movement drafted “Bill C-420” that would have allowed more freedom for manufacturers, consumers, retailers and practitioners.
A passionate networker, Peter was instrumental in bringing Canadian organizations into direct contact with US and European counterparts. There he encouraged the sharing of knowledge and resources to help companies being targeted by regulators. (Truehope, BioMedica Labs). As a result Peter has had a ringside seat in many successful court defenses of targeted small firms selling revolutionary products. There, he began to understand the magnitude of the problem Health Freedom was facing.
For many years Peter worked hand in glove with the recently deceased Trueman Tuck. Through a contact from a conference they organized in the fall of 2003, in Toronto Ontario, Peter received an untraceable email from a defined benefit pension fund actuary that clearly showed why inexpensive, effective remedies that would help people live longer, healthier lives were being kept from the public…a multi-trillion dollar unfunded liability.
Peter was also a founder of the Natural Health Products Protection Association (NHPPA) in Canada and recruited criminal defense lawyer Shawn Buckley to serve as president and public face.
A regular as a lobbyist on Parliament Hill in Canada and an occasional visitor to Washington DC, and certain Codex meetings, he was able have private meetings with Cabinet Ministers, MPs, Senators and even senior staff in the Canadian Prime Ministers’ Office. At Codex, in Rome, in 2005, he was able to arrange a private breakfast with the heads of the Canadian and US delegations.
For the past five years he has been working at trying to expand the base of the Health Freedom Movement to include private players from the finance industry, who have deeper pockets and similar regulatory issues. As well, he has been participating in bi-weekly conference calls on revamped communication strategy based on the work of Marshall McCluhan.
As a smoker of 45 years standing Peter believes in informed freedom of choice. Not collectivized forced compliance.
Peter knows where the bodies are buried, so-to-speak, and now he is writing for the Bolen Report…