Canada's Bill C-51 (Health and Food Safety) Under Attack
Canada's National Post Newspaper is reporting on the growing opposition to Bill C-51 "An Act to amend the Food and Drugs Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts". To review a copy of the First Reading version of Bill C-51, please click on the following link - http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Docid=3398126&file=4
Bill C-51 will have to wait for the elected representatives to return from summer recess (which is expected to start on June 20, 2008). However, during the summer, the opposition is likely to grow.
The National Post Article entitled "Firms Back Campaigns Against Health Bill" may be obtained by clicking the following link - http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=590205
The article reports that a web-based opposition is growing. The focus of the opposition relates to an impending clampdown on users of herbs and other natural remedies. However, the grassroots opposition movement has been driven largely by two controversial natural-health companies embroiled in drawn-out legal battles with Health Canada. Truehope Nutritional Support Ltd. sells an unlicensed vitamin treatment for bipolar disorder (EMpowerPlus). Struass Herb Co. sells herbal "heart drops" for cardiac disease.
According to the National Post article, a key player in the stop-C-51 campaign is the newly formed Natural Health Products Protection Association, which has close ties to both the Alberta firm and a second company enmeshed in a long-standing legal feud with Health Canada. Its three founding members include Truehope, Peter Helgason (a senior executive with Struass Herb Co.) and Shawn Buckley (a B. C. lawyer who has represented both Truehope and Strauss in court against Health Canada).
