Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen
The Canadian “Health Freedom” movement spells the word “AGGRESSIVE” in all capital letters. A few years ago concerned citizens from all across Canada gathered together and decided, like Californians, that they wanted “the best health care they could get – and they wanted it RIGHT NOW…”
What they do not want is a “Big Pharma” controlled “drugs, drugs, and more drugs” based health care system.
Because of their decision to (1) identify problems, (2) identify possible solutions, (3) make plans, (4) execute plans, (5) review situation, etc., the Canadian movement is far ahead of the US group in terms of GOAL achievement. They have a plan – and they’re working it – HARD.
Good for them.
I’m not going to go into the details of their plan – for it is specially designed for Canada, and the specific situation in Canada. For now, I’ll just focus on their current victory. In short, strange as it may sound, they lost(?) a battle because the other side surrendered.
Huh?
Yup. They lost a battle (C-420) because the other side surrendered.
The C-420 Assault, and the Lawsuit Against Health Canada…
The C-420 Assault, and the lawsuit against Health Canada, were combined (with other tactics), to remove Big Pharma’s control over Canadian regulatory agencies. Bill C-420 author James Lunney says of it
“Bill C-420 has to do with the way natural health products are regulated. It’s a very concise bill. It’s basically a one-page bill, and it would simply change the definition of food and drugs. It would open the definition of a drug and say “excluding food”, and then it would open the definition food, and say “including dietary supplements, herbs, and other natural health products” as food, so they cannot be regulated as drugs. Currently they’re regulated as a subclass of drugs, and that has resulted in a lot of problems, frankly.“
The North American continent is awakening to the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is the biggest threat it has ever faced. Far more deadly than any terrorist activity, far more deadly than the NAZI threat of World War Two, “Big Pharma,” as it is known worldwide, is an entity unto itself, larger, and more powerful, than most nations on Planet Earth – and absolutely murderous in its actions, and intent – it answers to no one. No one regulates it. No one holds it accountable. Certainly not the US FDA. Certainly not Health Canada.
Below is a copy of the “information release” from the Canadian Health Freedom Movement:
First Crack In Big Pharma’s Wall
(Ottawa, November 22)
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 byDr. James Lunney (CPC Nanaimo-Alberni).
The Alliance of Natural Health Suppliers (ANHS), click here Freedom of Choice in Health Care, click here and Friends of Freedom click here 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”.
There are no plans to drop the lawsuit against Health Canada, nor the lawsuit against Canadian “quackbuster,” Ontario “pimple doctor” Terry Polevoy. The Canadian Movement is using the “discovery process,” of the lawsuits, to root out the “quackbuster” connections, and influence stream, with Health Canada. I suspect, after the research is completed, an additional lawsuit will be filed, similar to the US “RICO” (racketeering) complaint type suit, against the “quackbusters,” including the New York ad agency, the associated PR firms, and various individuals.
The Canadian “Health Freedom” movement plays “hardball.”
Stay tuned…
Tim Bolen – Consumer Advocate