An Update on Your Ownership

By Shawn Buckley

Ownership means control. We own things so that we have control over them. Black’s Law Dictionary defines ownership as “the complete dominion, title, or proprietary right in a thing or claim.” The issue of who owns your body is going to be an interesting legal topic in the following years. When living organisms such as plants contain a genetic modification, the patent holder of that genetic modification has a property interest in the plant. So, if the pollen from a genetically modified crop transfers the genetic modification to an adjacent farmer’s field, the patent holder of that genetic modification has a property interest in the infected crop. When a human has their DNA modified by mRNA vaccines, does the patent holder of the modification have a property interest in the human? Likely, but the ramifications of such property interests are yet to be explored by the Courts.

The legal area where ownership over another’s body has been sorted out, is the area of slavery. For example, when slavery was allowed in the U.S., there were laws governing who had rights over the slave’s body. In other words, there were ownership laws. Slaves have, until now, been the only class of persons who did not have control over their bodies. They did not have control because they did not own their bodies. Slaves have been the only class of people that could not decide how they were going to treat themselves when they were sick or how they were going to prevent illness. In this way, slaves are like livestock. They have no choice when it comes to medical treatment.

Very soon, we are all going to learn what it is like to be slaves in that we will have no choice when it comes to medical treatment. The entity that will get to choose our medical treatments is Health Canada. It flows from this that Health Canada has the power of ownership over us.

There should be nothing more important to you than having control over your body. There should be nothing more important than having the right to choose your medical treatments. You are in the process of losing this right. You are in the process of losing control over your own body.

You are losing ownership over your body so that Health Canada can protect a different type of property: intellectual property. Our drug laws are designed to protect intellectual property rights (patents). They are not there to protect health. Here is how it works:

First, the government defines the term “drug” so broadly that it includes anything used for a therapeutic purpose. So, for example, even water is a “drug” if used to treat or to prevent dehydration.

Second, the government makes it illegal to sell a “drug” without government approval. With these two tricks, it becomes illegal to use any treatment the government doesn’t give you permission to use.

Third, the government makes it so expensive to get government approval that only drugs with intellectual property rights (patents) can get through the drug approval process. The process to get approval to treat a serious health condition can cost over a billion dollars. Less expensive applications still cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Companies only try to get drugs with patents through this process. If they are successful, they can charge high prices because the patent gives them a monopoly over the drug. You can only patent a chemical drug. You cannot patent a natural remedy. The effect of this distinction is that, in Canada, it is only legal to treat serious health conditions with chemical drugs.

What is changing is that Health Canada will now be making it so costly to get approval to treat moderate and minor health conditions, that only chemical drugs with patents will be able to afford to get through this process. The effect of this change is that, in Canada, it will only be legal to treat any health condition with chemical drugs.

This change will bring about a transfer of ownership in your body to Health Canada. Remember, ownership is about control. Whoever controls your body owns it. The most important control over your body is deciding how you will treat and prevent illness. That control is moving to Health Canada. Soon, your only treatment options will be chemical drugs Health Canada has approved for you. You will be the same as a slave. The only treatment options available to you will be those that your master, Health Canada, grants you.

Although this is a tremendous advancement for intellectual property rights, it will have a drastic effect on your health. Currently, over 70% of Canadians regularly take natural health products, because they work. Many of us are only alive because of natural remedies. Many more of us successfully manage serious health conditions with them because the Health Canada approved chemical drugs were not working or had intolerable side effects. Up to now, Canadians have been enjoying ownership over their bodies by making their own choice as to how to treat and prevent illness. Now, Health Canada is taking away this essential freedom.

Health Canada is implementing a policy called the Self-Care Framework (the “SCF”), the public goal of which is to impose the chemical drug regulations on natural health products. This imposition will take natural health products away from Canadians, who will be left with only chemical drugs as treatments. This is Health Canada’s goal.

One of the changes the SCF will bring about will be to require small natural remedy companies to pay the same fees that the large pharmaceutical companies pay. Many companies will go out of business and we will lose their products. The products that do remain will increase in price, taking them away from economically-disadvantaged Canadians. This change alone will likely make it impossible for homeopathic, naturopathic, and traditional Chinese doctors, whom many of us rely on, to access most of the remedies they use.

Companies with patented products (chemical drugs) will have a monopoly, enabling them to dominate the market, recover their costs, and make a profit. What are we and our natural health practitioners to do when we have no natural treatments?

We have to band together to stop Health Canada. Last year, Health Canada snuck into the Federal Budget Bill changes to the law that imposed penalties intended for large pharmaceutical companies on health care practitioners and small natural remedy companies. The fines increased from $5,000 to $5,000,000. No health care practitioner or natural remedy company can withstand these large penalties.

MP Blaine Calkins has introduced Bill C-368 to reverse these changes so that penalties on small companies and practitioners are reasonable. Second Reading for this Bill in Parliament is set for April 18, 2024. It is crucial that Bill C-368 passes second reading so that it can be analyzed in Parliament’s Standing Committee on Health. We need you to put pressure on your MP to support this Bill. The Natural Products Protection Association (the “NHPPA”) has both a petition and an email campaign to make it easy for you to give your support. Go to nhppa.org to sign the petition and to send an email to your MP.

To stop Health Canada’s efforts to take control of your body, you have to get involved. You cannot afford to lose your right to decide how to treat and how to prevent illness. For many of us, this is a do or die situation. We have to stand together. Please get involved with the NHPPA so that we can act together. First, go to nhppa.org and subscribe to the Newsletter. This will inform you about campaigns and initiatives you can participate in. You can learn about events and volunteering opportunities. Second, fill in the volunteer form. Third, support financially. We are fighting rich and powerful interests and to overcome their influence, we need to create the largest citizen rebellion in Canadian history. We need your support. We cannot do it without you.

This is a tremendous opportunity for Canadians to make Parliament responsive to us again. There is frustration from the Covid experience over governments being unresponsive to us. The Trucker Convoy became the largest protest in Canadian history. For 24 days, not a single member of the Trudeau Government would meet with the Truckers. Rather, the Government used the 24 days to organize a military-style police force to assault us. We have to get Parliament listening to us again. This is likely our best opportunity. Other than the Trucker Convoy, the two largest Citizen-led movements in my lifetime have been to protect access to natural remedies. Canadians are passionate about protecting their right to natural remedies, and we have an opportunity to use that passion to get Parliament responding to us again.

Shawn Buckley is a constitutional lawyer and President of the NHPPA.