Health law may protect Ottawa (And not consumers) - Canada

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Health law may protect Ottawa

 

By ANDRÉ PICARD

PUBLIC HEALTH REPORTER

 

Monday, Nov. 10, 2003

 

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The proposed " modernization " of the Food and Drugs Act will prevent Canadians

from suing Health Canada for negligence, even for flagrant failures like those

that occurred during the tainted-blood scandal, a new report says.

 

Changes to the law will also greatly increase the likelihood that unsafe drugs

and hazardous products make their way to market, and open the door to

direct-to-consumer advertising, genetically modified foods and human cloning,

the Canadian Health Coalition says in a scathing analysis that will be released

today in Ottawa.

 

" The government and industry elites have made their choice: Economic growth and

corporate profits are to trump the protection of citizens' health, " said Mike

McBane, principal author of the report. " The evidence indicates that the federal

health and safety regulatory agencies have been captured by industry. "

 

The Liberal government announced plans to revamp the Food and Drugs Act during

the 2002 Speech from the Throne. At the time, it said that the legislation

needed to be streamlined and modernized to keep pace with sweeping changes in

technology and society. The government promised that health protection measures

would be strengthened and lead to stricter enforcement through an approach

called " smart regulation. "

 

The plans have been fleshed out in a Health Canada document entitled Health and

Safety First!, which states that one of the reasons the legislation needs major

revision is that it has " too narrow a focus on safety. " Plans for public

consultation on the new law were also announced this summer.

 

" One of government's most important responsibilities is to ensure an effective

and responsive health protection system is in place to protect citizens, " Anne

McLellan, the federal Minister of Health, said at the time. " Canadians have a

right to expect that their food is safe to eat, that their drugs are effective

and safe, that household products they use are safe, and that there are strong

measures to protect them from new and re-emerging communicable diseases. "

 

The Canadian Health Coalition agrees with those goals but argues that nothing of

the sort will be achieved with the proposed legislative changes.

 

In its report, which the group says was written to decode the doublespeak in the

Health Canada proposal, the health coalition argues that " 'smart' regulation is

market-friendly regulation designed to bring regulatory regimes in line with

trade and investment policy. Instead of government regulation intervening in the

market, the market will now intervene in government regulation. "

 

One of the key goals of the new law, according to the report, is to limit the

government's exposure to lawsuits. Currently, Health Canada is facing almost

$12-billion in legal claims for everything from tainted blood to faulty medical

devices and there are predictions that new technologies such as cloning,

reproductive technologies and genetic engineering could result in massive

lawsuits.

 

In the report, the health coalition argues that the proposed legislative changes

would amount to a profound legal and philosophical shift in Canada's approach to

health protection, from a " duty of care " to a " risk management " approach.

 

According to the report, the new law would see the current approach in the Food

and Drugs Act turned on its head.

 

 

 

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