What’s Going On in Canada?
Our neighbors to the north had legislation passed in 2023 that was embedded in spending budgets that effectively attacks all of natural health and wellness care by targeting supplements, vitamins, even tea. How? By requiring supplements, foods and drinks said to be therapeutic to go thru vastly expensive trials and by treating them as equals to pharmaceutical-chemical drugs.
“Drugs” Can Mean Anything
Canada very loosely defines Drugs as anything that is claimed to be therapeutic. This includes food and drinks and natural plants. As NHPPA.org founder, attorney Shawn Buckley gives the example, even ginger tea is included. Yes, even something known to be beneficial like ginger tea and used for thousands of years, is now under the gun.
Pharma Industry vs. Nature
By definining things as Drugs and now, by removing the previous exemption for food, drinks, and supplements, they put these in the same category as pharmaceutical drugs. Canada will require any maker to go through the prohibitive expense of drug trials that pharmaceuticals do. The massive profits that patented chemical-pharmaceuticals make allow them to fund the testing fees and trials. But natural plants and vitamins that cannot be patented (and should not be) will never have the profit margins that justify expensive trials.
By requiring supplement, food, and beverage makers to go thru trials, they effectively move to shut down the natural products industry. When companies don’t make them, holistic care providers like Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Homeopathic and Naturalpaths can’t give their patients the remedies needed to balance their bodies. And the domino of natural healthcare can fall.
The Big Lie – for Your Safety
Watch for those words when you hear public officials pushing for more laws and regulation. These are often times the keywords used when our freedoms and rights are under attack. And under attack not for the public welfare, but for the benefit of private corporations, like big Pharma.
Why It Matters to All Americans
Health Canada is the equivalent for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and equally captured by private industry. As I highlighted in my podcast interview on the Benefits Executive Roundtable on Natural Medicine & Healthcare, watchdog agencies like our FDA and CDC are in the pocket of the most powerful lobby – Big Pharma.
What happens in Canada sets the stage for the thing in the USA and in western nations overseas. We can’t allow gives of the natural world to be held hostage by government agencies that are tools for the most profitable global industry.
The Natural Health Products Protection Association (NHPPA) is leading a nationwide campaign to stop the Self-Care Framework, which when fully implemented, will result in the loss of most of our natural health products.
Key issues:
- Health Canada is implementing stricter regulations that will significantly impact consumer choice and restrict access to health products and supplements.
- Health Canada is introducing new fees on natural health products, which will place a considerable financial strain on NHP businesses. This will lead to significant price hikes for consumers or even force many small to medium-sized companies out of business.
- Increased Health Canada censorship will prevent truthful advertising by both manufacturers and natural health stores.
- Huge new fines will cripple and destroy the natural health community. Prior to June 22, 2023, the maximum fine you faced for violating the laws on NHPs (such as selling a product with improper labelling) was $5,000. Now it is $5,000,000 a day.
