Protecting Natural Health Products

By Shawn Buckley

For my entire law career, I have been helping natural health companies withstand Health Canada attacks. Early on, I saw a pattern. All my clients had suffered with a serious health condition. They suffered terribly for years, taking all of the approved chemical drugs prescribed by their doctors. They then found a natural solution for their problem and were healed. The experience was so transformative that they felt obligated to help others. They went into business to help others, and then Health Canada attacked them.

Nick was no exception to this pattern. He was suffering terribly with arthritis. Despite taking all of the chemical drugs his doctor prescribed, he was becoming disabled. He was close to the point of having to shut down his business as a sporting goods distributor. A friend told him to try shark cartilage. Nick tried it, but it didn’t work. Later, his friend told him to take lots and take it for a longer period. Nick followed this advice and got well. He no longer had to worry about closing his business. He realized he had to share his relief with others. Despite being a sporting goods distributor, Nick was going to sell shark cartilage. So, at first, the only place you could find Bell Shark Cartilage was in sporting goods stores.

I tell this story to drive home the importance of natural remedies. For many of us, they are the only treatments that enable us to be well or to avoid suffering. Unfortunately, Health Canada is moving to take our natural remedies away so that our only options will be chemical drugs.

Health Canada has come out with a plan to regulate natural remedies with the same regulations that apply to chemical over-the-counter drugs. The “reason” or end goal of this plan is to over-regulate natural remedies off the market. And Health Canada will succeed unless we stop them.

The good news is that together, we can stop Health Canada. Restricting our access to natural remedies is an issue the majority of Canadians get excited about. We get excited because we rely on them. Over 70% of Canadians regularly take natural remedies. The last two times Health Canada tried to restrict access to natural remedies we rebelled. In both 1997-98 and 2008, the citizen rebellions were so large that Health Canada had to back down. We need to do even more this time.

Many know me as lead counsel for the National Citizens’ Inquiry (NCI). I am also the President of a non-profit called the Natural Health Product Protection Association (NHPPA – nhppa.org). The NHPPA is leading a national campaign to protect our natural remedies. We started our campaign in May after the NCI hearings ended. Since then, we have had some encouraging events. Parliament resumed in September. Within two weeks of resuming, the Standing Committee on Health held an unscheduled meeting. They had three Health Canada officials attend to speak about the regulation of natural remedies. The Chair of the Committee held up a stack of postcards the NHPPA had you send to Members of Parliament. He said he had received a large number of them. The other MPs on the Committee had also. They were getting your message that you want your access to natural remedies protected.

Some time ago, I asked Conservative MP Blaine Calkins if he could help. I volunteered to send him a draft private member’s bill to repeal sections 500-504 of Bill C-47. These sections impose penalties intended for large pharmaceutical companies onto natural health companies and natural health practitioners. The maximum fine has increased from $5,000 an offence to $5,000,000 for every day there is an offence. A five-million-dollar fine may be pocket change for a company like Pfizer. A five-million-dollar fine would destroy any natural health company or natural health practitioner. On December 5, 2023, MP Calkins introduced Bill C-368 to repeal sections 500-504 of Bill C-47. This is an important step forward, as it brings this issue more into public notice. It also signals that public pressure is affecting the Conservative Party.

We need to let all MPs know that we want them to support Bill C-368 and that we want it to pass second reading and get into Committee. This will obligate the Standing Committee on Health to examine the issue and to get public input. The NHPPA is running a campaign to create this support. We invite you to participate. Call and write your MP. Sign our e-petition: https://nhppa.org/bill-c368.

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Our Covid experience has taught us that our institutions, including Parliament, are no longer responsive to the citizen. This is a dangerous situation and one we cannot ignore. All of us are now personally responsible for doing whatever we can to get our institutions acting for the people again. Nowhere is this more important than on the issue of sovereignty over our own bodies. Health Canada is in the process of regulating natural remedies out of existence. We then will not have any health choices. We will be limited to chemical drugs as our only option. We will find ourselves in the position that one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Benjamin Rush, warned against. Dr. Rush is cited as saying:

“Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an underground dictatorship…. To restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic and have no place in a republic…. The Constitution of this republic should make special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom.”

We have the opportunity to work together and ensure our medical freedom. We can insist that the Charter of Health Freedom be enacted so that our medical freedom is preserved (charterofhealthfreedom.org). If you get involved and do something daily to get our freedoms back, you will be surprised to learn how powerful you are. We don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to think all is lost. Let’s move forward with confidence and get our freedom back.

Join with us at nhppa.org.