Vancouver-Shawn Buckley-- Monday 7-9pm---Bill C-51 Threatens Natural Health Products

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http://www.hans.org/events/?event=nhp Upcoming Events Endangered Natural Health Products? with Shawn Buckley, LLB St. Andrews Wesley Church - 1022 Nelson St, VancouverMonday, June 2nd, 2008 - 7-9pm Event Information What would you do if your favourite vitamins, minerals, herbs, homeopathics, or nutritional supplements disappeared? Consumers have the right to know how regulations affect our choices. Because we believe that this issue is so important, we're making admission to this event FREE to pre-registered members! To register, members must call the HANS office at 604-435-0512. Non-members and unregistered members pay a minimum five dollar donation at the door. Click here to send information about this event to a friend! Bill C-51 Threatens Natural Health Products by Shawn Buckley, LLB Source: HANS e-News - May 1, 2008 On April 8th, Canada's Minister of Health, Tony Clement, introduced Bill C-51 into the House of Commons. If passed, the bill will drastically alter the current Food and Drugs Act, and that will be bad news for many

Canadians. Since 2004, when the Natural Health Product Regulations were first introduced, natural health products have been increasingly threatened. The regulations were Health Canada's response to consumer demands for the government to protect their access to natural health products. Unfortunately, the regulations have had the opposite effect. Expectations are that if Federal Bill C-51 is passed, around 75 percent of new applications will most likely fail to meet new requirements.Bill C-51 reads like a police state manual.There has never been a recorded death in Canada caused by a natural health product. Considering that there are multiple deaths every year caused by common foods such as peanuts and shellfish, it is clear that natural health products are extremely safe. When you consider the benefits of natural health products, including that many of us rely upon them for our very lives, it becomes clear that the real danger in

regulating them is to "over-regulate" them off the market.Bill C-51 would also give Health Canada unprecedented power to take natural health products away from consumers.Traditionally, in Canada we have had the rule of law. This meant that it was not okay for the government to take our property without a warrant or without court supervision to prevent arbitrariness and abuse. It is troubling that to "protect" us the state can seize our property without prior court approval, without clearly defined reasons for the seizure, without time limit, and without court supervision. It is troubling that the state can commit trespass on our property without any recourse. It is troubling that we can be personally fined and jailed for corporate misdeeds. I am still in disbelief. Surely, we can draft consumer protection legislation that does not read like a police state handbook.The Federal government is proposing to take away our right to choose and make

our health decisions for us. We would then be forced to use other treatments such as chemical pharmaceutical drugs, which can be dangerous and ineffective. For those of us who only get relief from natural health products, the new law would force us to suffer and, in extreme circumstances, die.Excerpted from Common Ground Magazine, May 2008