“When we give government the power to make medical decisions for us, we, in essence, accept that the state owns our bodies.” U.S. Representative Ron Paul, MD
Health Canada is billing a meeting in Saskatoon tomorrow as “Natural Health Products Consultations”. There is no mention that it is Bill C-51.
The legislation gives police-state powers to the Government. There have been rallies against the bill in Richmond B.C., Calgary, Lethbridge, Edmonton, Saskatoon (this afternoon).
People’s response is often one of incredulity that this legislation can be happening.
The legislation is justified in the name of “harmonization” with American regulations. It has little to do with Health Care Products.
As I understand the situation, Americans too, are fighting the same legislation in the States.
Please write your MP and Stephen Harper. You can sign an on-line petition (see below).
Many people are calling for the resignation of Tony Clement, Minister of Health.
I will be at the meeting tomorrow am. Important meeting with Fed Govt Officials, Monday May 26, 8:30 am, Saskatoon Inn
Need everyone we can get.
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CONTACT MORRIS ROSENBERG His Email: dm_sm@hc-sc.gc.ca
Morris Rosenberg, Deputy Minister of Health.
The agenda is driven and carried by bureaucrats that were there under the Mulroney Conservatives, continued under the Liberals and still carry the ball under the Conservatives.
Meet Morris: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/minist/deputy-sous/index_e.html
(Sorry – I usually confine myself to logical argument. Not this, which I sent from the web-page.)
Dear Morris,
You know the reasons why Bill C-51 is an infringement upon my rights and freedoms.
You are a senior official in the Govt of Canada. Your responsibility is to serve the interests of the people that live in this country. We pay your salary.
You are not there to serve the interests of the pharmaceutical and chemical corporations.
I will be asking the Prime Minister to remove you. For just cause, with notice and no compensation.
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Al writes:
This is outrageous. Whether you use natural health products is not the issue. The issue is the right to choose and the freedom to choose without undue interference and oversight by government. I have no problem with regulations that put health and safety first. But Bill C-51 is about neither. It’s about letting big government pass laws that benefit the economic health and safety of big corporations.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance and we’ve already lost too much.
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Laverne:
Hi most of you have more than enough to read. However, this Bill C-51 does seem to be one of the more ominous issues affecting us and I believe we should give this our attention.
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Clint:
We have to defend our rights or lose them. One of the best things we can do is try to educate our friends and relatives about the erosion of our freedom concerning our choices when it comes to health issues.
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Maureen to her MP:
Dear Mr. Fitzpatrick,
I am very concerned that Bill C- 51 will have very wide ranging & negative implications for Canadians. I have been personally researching & utilizing Natural Health Products & practitioners for years (20 plus) & as a result I feel that I have saved the health system thousands of dollars, because, except for two broken bones, I have not needed the services of Doctors , hospitals or prescription drugs.
Please review this issue at www.healthcanadaexposed.com & help protect our right to freely use time tested, natural health products.
Thank you.
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Michael wrote:
I find this very distressing given all the research I’ve done on the attacks (and subsequent loss) of rights and freedoms of our American neighbours.
This is more of the same, except it’s directed at us. We can’t sleep through this one!! Please get involved and help in any way you can. The implications are enormous and are much more than just the right to alternative health therapies. We have all heard in recent years, much about the impending threat of a major global biological epidemic; in fact our health care agencies have begun planning and preparing for it (that alone should tell us something). We don’t need big drug companies controlling this aspect of health care; they already have too much control and already bleed us to death (no pun intended). Thanks for your help.
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STOP BILL-C51 ON-LINE PETITION
Our Government of Canada is going to “CRIMINALIZE” Natural Health Products so that they can put a mother in Jail that chooses to feed her children natural herbs and supplements…this is very important to understand…we only have 500 votes…we need over 100,000 votes to have an effect…BY MAY 9TH.PASS THIS ON TO EVERYBODY PLEASE..
Sign Petition: Stop Bill C-51 (link no longer valid)
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FROM BRENT PATTERSON, COUNCIL OF CANADIANS bpatterson AT canadians.org www.canadians.org
Go to www.stopc51.com and www.healthcoalition.ca and read their beautifully organized information, especially the “Draft Discussion Paper on Bill C-51” by lawyer Shawn Buckley.
1. Schedule a visit to your local MPs as soon as possible. Do not go alone, always have a witness or two or three. Hand them Buckley’s analysis and demand that C-51 be killed.
2. Hear Shawn Buckley, Dr. Shiv Chopra, and Mike McBane of the Canadian Health Coalition at OISE on June 26. I am the moderator. Health Canada spies are welcome!
3. Write to Prime Minister Harper and tell him what you think. Be polite.
Resources & Sources:
– S. Chopra, Corrupt to the Core: Memoirs of a Health Canada Scientists, Kos, 2008, in press, orders 519-927-1049
– M.McBane, Ill-Health Canada: Putting food and drug company profits ahead of safety, CCPA, 2005
Regarding Bill C-51 – sample of provisions, not complete:
Sections 13 & 18.7 restricted availability of natural health products
Section 15.1 (4) arbitrary powers to grant prescription status
Sections 31 & 3 (3) historically unprecedentedly high fines and jail terms associated with new definition of “sell” and “person”
Sections 3 (6) & 18 academic freedom stopped and research dependent on Health Canada’s permission
Sections 3(6) & 30 (7) importation of international regulations without Canadian input or parliamentary debate (e.g. Codex)
Section 23 unprecedented powers of search and seizure (including bank accounts); powers exceed those of police
The debate in Parliament on Bill C-51 following First Reading can be accessed from the parliamentary website by putting “Bill C-51 + Canada” into google.
Groups opposing C-51 (only those I knew about at time of going to press)
- International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine (founded by Dr. Abram Hoffer) centre AT orthomed.org phone 416-733-2117
- National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE); President James Clancy
- Ontario Medical Association’s Section on Complimentary Medicine, Chair Dr. Linda Rapson drrapson AT sympatico.ca
- Canadian Health Coalition, Director Michael McBane, www.healthcoalition.ca
- Canadian Coalition for Health Freedom trueman AT tucksprofessionalservices.com
- Natural Health Product Protection Association (their lawyer is Shawn Buckley)
- Truehope Nutritional Support Ltd (they won their case in court against Health Canada when the latter shut down a clinical trial using natural substances to treat bi-polar disorder at the University of Calgary
To access the above as well as new organizations go to (Link no longer valid: www.stopc51.com) and www.healthcoalition.ca
Important documentary material analyzing the issues:
- Discussion Paper on Bill C-51 by lawyer Shawn Buckley, President of the Natural Health Product Protection Agency (NHPPA) – may be accessed on the two websites above. It contains all the legal details, section by section, analyzed in ordinary language.
- Dr. James Lunney, PC Member of Parliament for Nanaimo-Albertini, BC. He wrote an Excellent article for Vitality Magazine’s September 2003 issue available on their website. It presents the reasons why he introduced Bill C-420 then with the support of then PC Leader, Stephen Harper. To understand how outrageous the current Bill C-51 is, it is imperative to read Dr. Luney’s article. He is now on record as being opposed to C-51. He called me after First Reading of C-51 and said : “You have to start a prairie fire to stop this bill!”
- Garry Anderson wrote an excellent in-depth analysis of the principles violated by Bill C-51. The important point he makes involve the secrecy of the Governor-in-Council method to by-pass parliamentary and public debate, the abuse of science and the abuse of the international Precautionary Principle evident in the wording of C-51. Must read! Available from him at garryanderson AT shaw.ca
- For the background information on Direct-to-Consumer-Advertising (DTCA) go to Canadian Medical Association Journal January 2, 2007, p.19, which explains the current legal action by CanWest against health Canada to remove prohibitions against DTCA on the grounds of Being a violation of the Charter rights of free speech (Big Tobacco was defeated on that argument by the Supreme Court years ago). Bill C-51 proposes dropping Section 3 of the current Food and Drugs Act which would be dropping that prohibition. The experts on DTCA, its effects on public policy, health and Medicare are Professor Joel Lexchin of York University, Professor Barbara Mintzes of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and Professor Alan Cassels of the same university and co-author (with Patrick Moynihan) of Selling Sickness: How The World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients, Nation Books 2004.
- The research and published letters to the media are available on the website of the Canadian Health Coalition www.healthcoalition.ca
- What happened in Australia when a similar bill was introduced and how it effectively killed all choice in natural health products came to me via on May 9, 2008, from Croft Woodruff at croft.woodruff AT gmail.com
- For details on how Canadians feel about the issues involved in Bill C-51 as well as the recently killed Bill C-517 (which would have made labeling of GMO products mandatory) go to Council of Canadians www.Canadians.org and read the latest document published by them entitled “Not Counting Canadians: The Security and Prosperity Partnership and public opinion”. C-51 harmonizes Health Care with this newly proposed treaty which would eliminate public debate, as the treaty over-rides national rights and citizen involvement in policy.
- According to independently conducted polls, 87% of Canadians want to retain our ability to set our own standards with regard to environment, health and safety issues – which this treaty would stop.
- “The Harper government has introduced Bill C-51, an Act to amend the Food and Drugs Act, which dramatically reduces safety requirements for drug approval. The current system of drug approval requires prior evidence of a minimum of safety and efficacy. However, C-51 reverses existing process by bringing ‘promising’ new drugs onto the market and then monitoring their effectiveness. This practice will expose Canadians to new drugs before their potential dangers are known. C-51 would permit the speedy marketing of expensive new drugs – many of which have no therapeutic advantage over safer, cheaper drugs – before research on effectiveness and safety is completed.”
They add, “Even post-marketing ‘surveillance’ to be done after new drugs are marketed will be carried out by the drug manufacturer involved, and thus will be biased in favour of the product being reviewed. For patients with rare diseases, who require access to groundbreaking new medications and can’t wait for a long approval process, a special access program already exists, one that does not include a general lowering of standards.”
We argue that a key initiative within the Security and Prosperity Partnership calls for the, “Identification and appropriate adoption of best practices in maintaining the safety, efficacy and quality of pharmaceutical products.” Two milestones within this initiative are to, “Evaluate best practices related to pharmaceutical review processes,” and “Examine the use of International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines and adopt best practices in maintaining the safety, efficacy and quality of medicines within the next 36 months (June 2008).”
The Harper government’s Bill C-51 would introduce the ‘progressive licensing’ of new pharmaceutical products in Canada. Progressive licensing means an increased reliance on research conducted by the drug manufacturers themselves, fast-tracking the drug approval process, and the appraisal of the safety of drugs once they are on the market, again primarily by the drug companies themselves.
The Globe and Mail reported on April 9 that, “A study published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine found that drugs approved quickly in the United States to meet government-imposed deadlines were significantly more likely to be subject to recalls and safety problems.” That same article quotes Joel Lexchin, a health policy professor at York University and drug safety expert: “I think that’s a pretty dangerous thing to be doing. This is part of a general trend in a lot of countries, at least with respect to the drug-approval system, [which] is deregulation, turning over more responsibility to the drug companies.”
The Edmonton Journal reported on April 9 that Canada will also be matching the U.S. penalty ceiling of $5 million for companies caught selling unsafe drugs. With profits last year of $8.144 billion, a company like Pfizer would have little difficulty shrugging that off.
Additionally, the CBC recently reported that, “Critics feel the bill will outlaw up to 60 per cent of natural health products currently sold in Canada, making many natural health products that have been sold in Canada for decades unavailable for purchase and penalizing parents who give herbs or supplements to their children. They also argue that the government could designate any natural health product a prescription drug, making it available by prescription only. They say these types of provisions will force small companies out of the market.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
- To read the Council of Canadians fact sheet on C-51, please go to (Link no longer valid)
- To read our Integrate This! posting, go to (Link no longer valid)
- For additional background please read pages 164 to 168 of Maude Barlow’s book ‘Too Close for Comfort: Canada’s Future within Fortress North America’.
To read NUPGE’s letter to Health Minister Clement, go to (Link no longer valid: http://www.nupge.ca/publications/MiscPDFs/letter_clement_apr08.pdf. )
To read the CBC report ‘Criticism of natural health products Bill C-51 mounts’, go to (Link no longer valid)http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/05/09/bill-c51.html?ref=rss.
TAKE ACTION
Write federal Health Minister Tony Clement at Clement.T AT parl.gc.ca to express your opposition to C-51.
The Canadian Health Coalition is also asking Canadians to contact their MPs to voice their objections about C-51. You can access the action request by going to (link no longer valid).
SAMPLE LETTER
Minister Clement,
As a supporter of the Council of Canadians, I ask that you withdraw C-51 and take measures to ensure that Canada’s drug approval process is improved and strengthened, rather than deregulated with a greater dependence on research conducted by drug manufacturers.
According to an Environics poll conducted in April, 87% of Canadians agree that Canada should maintain the ability to set its own independent environmental, health and safety standards, even if this might reduce cross-border trade opportunities with the United States. With Bill C-51, Prime Minister Harper appears to be more concerned with corporate and U.S. priorities than the health and safety of Canadians.
Bill C-51 would introduce U.S.-style ‘progressive licensing’ for new pharmaceutical products in Canada. This means relying on corporate information to fast-track the drug approval process, and then letting drug companies keep track of the impact on our health. Yet, a recent study from The New England Journal of Medicine found that fast-tracking drugs to market in the United States has led to significantly more call-backs for safety reasons.
I look forward to your response.
<your name>
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Canada’s C-51: Trojan Horse Legislation Sponsored by Big Pharma
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/canadianC-51bill27apr08.shtml
Bill C-51 Unlawfully Suppresses Canadian Citizens’ Rights and Freedoms
[Editor’s Note: Bills such as C-51 are but thinly disguised variations on Nazi Germany’s 1933 Enabling Act which removed Parliamentary decision making and oversight from national legislation. Stated in its simplest terms, these bills are intended to replace democratic representative government with un-elected, closed-door decision making which will bind all citizens. We are witnessing the transformation of North American democratic government into oligarchic tyranny. Will Canadian citizens wake up in time?.. ..Ken Adachi]
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Canadian Rights and Freedoms are at Risk, An Important Notice Regarding Bill C-51
On April 8th, 2008, the Canadian Minister of Health introduced Bill C-51 into the House of Commons. This Bill proposes significant changes to the current Food and Drugs Act that will have wide-ranging negative implications for Canadians. Bill C-51 will:
- Remove democratic oversight, bypassing elected officials to vote in laws and allow bureaucrats to adopt laws from other countries without our consent.
- Remove 70% of Natural Health Products from Canadians and many others will be available by prescription only.
- Restrict research and development of safe natural alternatives in favor of high risk drugs.
- Punish Canadians with little or no opportunity for protection or recourse for simply speaking about or giving a natural product without the approval of government. More than 70% of people in Canada use a Natural Health Product. The new law goes so far as to warrant action against a person who would give another person an unapproved amount of garlic on the recommendation that it would improve that persons health.
Proposed New Enforcement Powers:
- Inspectors will enter private property without a warrant
- Inspectors will take your property at their discretion
- Inspectors will dispose of your property at will
- Inspectors will not reimburse you for your losses
- Inspectors will seize your bank accounts
- Inspectors will charge owners shipping and storage charges for seized property
- Inspectors will be empowered to store your property indefinitely
- Inspectors will levy fines of up to $5,000,000.00 and/or seek 2 years in jail per incident
With your assets and money under their control will you be able to defend yourself in Court?
Can you trust government with this new law and enforcement power?
Would our government really ever turn this law against us? Read the following account.
In 2003 Health Canada launched an attack on a group of mentally ill patients and the company who supported them naturally. They seized shipments of a safe natural therapy required by the patients and stormed the support center with 17 armed officers and agents. The company (Truehope) reported that they lost contact with more than 300 of their Canadian participants. The Canadian Mental Health Association told of suicides as a result of government action.
Health Canada then charged the not for profit company, burdening them with heavy legal costs. Truehope was found innocent by necessity and instructed by the judge to continue under legal and moral responsibility. Although the agents admitted knowing they were injuring people through their actions, they stated under oath they care only about policy and directive. And what happened to the more than 300 mentally ill Canadians that became unreachable? In the months and years following, reports of hospitalizations and suicides during the seizures have surfaced. No Health Canada agent has ever been charged.
Will this new law be used to abuse and punish special interest groups, minorities, religious groups or others?
Why do bureaucrats want to bypass the Parliament and approval to create new laws?
Why do bureaucrats want seizure warrants without judge approval ?
With fines being increased a 1000 times, and seizing authority without a warrant, is Bill C-51 meant to bankrupt and silence its target audience?
Here’s what you can do to protect your rights:
Educate Yourself
- Go to http://www.stopc51.com and read more about Bill C-51
- Read bill C-51 on www.parl.gc.ca
- Tell others
- Talk to your local Press
- Contact your local MP (http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC)
- Ask the leaders in your community to get involved
- Contact your MLA
- Tell your Friends
Get involved
- Attend our rally at the Calgary Federal Court on May 9th 2008. Call 1-888-878-3467 for Details
- Print off this fact sheet and hand it out in your neighborhood.
- Forward this email to all of your concerned friends, family and community leaders
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Thu May 15, 2008 7:49 am (PDT)
Did you know that there is MUCH more to Bill C51? Do you think it’s JUST natural health products??
Check out what else this Bill is going to allow the government to do:
- Enter private property_ *without a warrant* Section 23.4
- Confiscate your property_ *at their discretion* Section 23.2 a
- Dispose of your property_ *at their discretion* Section 23.3 c
- Seize your bank accounts_ *without a warrant*
- *Charge you* for shipping and storage of your property Section 23.3a-b
- *Store your property Indefinitely* without paying you for damages Section23.2 d
- *Levy fines* of up to $5,000,000.00 / 2 years in jail per offence.
Check out this website. It’s very informative. www.stopc51.com
Updates…..this is getting more SERIOUS.. it has passed 2nd Reading in the House by Common Consent ( this is a laugh ! what happened is:
secretly on the weekend, they got signatures of all 3 party leaders WITHOUT debate..) We have very little Time here…
The NHPPA has been formed in Kamloops, BC.. with Shawn Buckley,LLB (Kamloops lawyer) with Peter Helgason ( Strauss Heart drops) see also www.truehope.com
N-Natural
H-Health
P-Products
P-Protection
A-Association
Please see www.nhppa.org ……… We are a local Saskatoon site organized to help with awareness. I am requiring ALL the help we can pool together. ANY time/gifts/cash donations.. Pledges forms and petitions are available here to sign and to get into your local areas, schools, malls, churches, neighbours etc. These guys have been working all over the Country and require all the help we can muster.
Seeing the big difference people can make in Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton .. and now Saskatoon to get their rallies together asap.
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What does Bill C 51 do? It makes it a crime for you to take care of your health in any manner – unless granted specific government permission. At the present time, 60 -70 % of Natural Health Product applications have been rejected and have failed to receive that permission. The punishments for non-compliance are those found in total dictatorships – they are draconian and onerous beyond description. Bill C 51 sells your health decisions to government bagmen, who are in bed with Big Pharma . It destroys your right to make your own health choices, your right to practice self-sufficiency and independence – and it removes your access to Natural Health Products that have been shown to be safe for centuries.
Take back jurisdiction over your own body – It is your God-given birthright – protect it!. It does not belong to the government, and certainly not to industry. (Big Pharma).
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IAHF List: URGENT!! ACT IMMEDIATELY!! See below. This alert just in from Tony Stephan of Truehope Inc. in Alberta Canada. Tony has 8 employees hard at work in an emergency call center from which they’re contacting every health food store in Canada urging emergency assistance to kill the bill from hell: C-51.
No one in Canada or the USA can afford not to help kill this bill. If you are American, please forward this to anyone in Canada who you know, and if you are Canadian, please take action yourself, then download this info and bring it to every health food store within a 25 k radius of your house and urge them to bagstuff the alert and to urge customers to call their MPs to strenuously oppose this. If you don’t you will lose your access to dietary supplements. Keep in mind that the Canadian Health Food Assn isn’t helping to kill this bill.
IAHF warns vitamin consumers globally that the European Food Safety Authority combined with the European Commission will be unleashing the regs from hell in January 2009, and that they’ll make their way into Codex because the EU politically dominates Codex. These will be ‘Maximum Safe Upper Levels’ that will be only slight multiples above RDA. IAHF warns you that if we fail to get congressional oversight in the USA on the FDA’s Trilateral Cooperation Charter with Canada/ Mexico, we will not be able to stop this from coming to America, we will not be able to defend DSHEA. IAHF has just issued an urgent warning to the Life Extension Foundation, National Health Federation, American Association for Health Freedom, National Council for Health Freedom and allied groups world wide to the urgent need to assist film maker Kevin Miller so he can produce an updated version of ‘We Become Silent’ which will focus on these issues.
Remember Americans , if we don’t slay this dragon in Canada, its coming there next .
Americans – Take action via (Link no longer valid) http://www.nocodexgenocide.com/page/page/3113337.htm
Canadians: Protect Your Constitutional Rights
An Important Notice Regarding Bill C-51
On April 8, 2008, the Minister of Health in Canada introduced Bill C-51 into the House of Commons. This Bill proposes significant changes to the current Food and Drugs Act that would remove critical checks and balances from Health Canada and endanger your Constitutional rights to “life, liberty, and security of person” (Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 7).
Without immediate action from concerned citizens like you, this Bill will soon be law in Canada. Consider How Bill C-51 Would Affect You.
- Many natural health products that have been sold in Canada for decades would become unavailable, and remaining products would cost much more (Sections 13 & 18.7);
- The government could designate any natural health product a prescription drug, making it available by prescription only (Section 15.1(4));
- You could be fined thousands of dollars or go to jail for giving your child or friend a natural health product (Sections 31 & 3(3) – expanded definition of “sell”);
- Researchers would lose academic freedom: they could not study the beneficial effects of natural health products without first getting the government’s permission (Sections 3(6) & 18.2);
- International laws that restrict access to natural health products could be made law in Canada without the approval of elected officials or any debate in the House of Commons (Sections 3(6) & 30(7));
- To enforce this new law, inspectors could enter private property and
- (Section 23): take anything at their discretion;
- never pay the owner for it;
- charge the owner of the property a fee for shipping it to a secure storage unit;
- charge the owner of the property fees for keeping it in storage;
- keep it in storage as long as they want; and/or dispose of it at will.
Health Canada Needs Checks and Balances.
Acting under current laws, Health Canada has already endangered Canadians’ lives by seizing their natural health products. In 2003, Health Canada seized personal shipments of EMPowerplus, a vitamin-mineral supplement that hundreds of Canadians with bipolar disorder and other serious mood disorders depended on for mental wellness, and ordered Truehope Nutritional Support Ltd. to stop selling the supplement in Canada. Fearing for the safety of Canadians who were using EMPowerplus, Truehope disobeyed Health Canada’s orders and was charged with selling an illegal drug.
Fortunately, in this case, Health Canada was unsuccessful in removing EMPowerplus from the market. In 2006, Truehope was found not guilty. The court ruled that Truehope was “overwhelmingly compelled to disobey.in order to protect the health, safety and well-being of the users of the supplement”, and Health Canada dropped its appeal of this case in October 2006.
(Learn more: (Link no longer valid) http://truehope.com/newsletter/editions/online038-October-22-2007.html )
However, Bill C-51 would make it easier for Health Canada to seize natural health products like EMPowerplus in the future and remove them from the market, violating your Constitutional rights to “life, liberty, and security of person.”
What You Can Do To Protect Your Rights
+ Read Bill C-51.
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=3398126 & Read a Discussion Paper on Bill C-51 by the President of the Natural Health Product Protection Agency (NHPPA). http://www.healthcanadaexposed.com/discussion.htm etc.