October 1, 2009
Contents:
- New Campaign to Save Natural Health and Organic Products Industry
- Bill C-6 Battle Wages On: An Update on the Political Campaign to Protect NHPs
- Canadian Charter of Health Freedom Update
- NOSB Wants to Solve the Problem of Mislabeled Organic Personal Care Products - Take Action Before the October 19, 2009
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New Campaign to Save Natural Health and Organic Products Industry
by Canadian Health Food Association Media ReleaseOctober 3rd, 2009 -Today, the Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA) announced its new lobby campaign to save the Natural Health and Organic Products industry, with the launch of its new website SaveOurNaturalHealthProducts.ca. The overall objective of this campaign is to ensure that Canadians seeking optimal health and well-being will continue to have access and choice to innovative high quality natural and organic products.
Since the Natural Health Products (NHP) Regulations were implemented six years ago, the Natural Health and Organic products industry has worked hard to comply with over 38,000 product license applications submitted to the Natural Health Product Directorate (NHPD) of Health Canada. After five years, just over 13,000 applications have been approved for a license, almost 50% being refused or withdrawn.
With Health Canada's deadline of April 2010 fast approaching, many of the natural health products currently being sold will not be licensed for sale, and the availability of new NHPs will be significantly reduced unless immediate improvements are made to the product licensing process. Without significant changes, the industry's revenues, profitability, and viability in Canada will be at risk.
The CHFA has launched this new campaign, encouraging its members to participate by contacting local Members of Parliament, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health, urging Health Canada to work collaboratively with CHFA and its members to implement solutions that will ensure Canadians continue to have access and choice to a wide variety of products.
"It is vital for our members to get involved and contact their local Member of Parliament," says CHFA President and CEO, Penelope Marrett. "Our industry is in crisis and there is an extremely urgent need to find a solution".
The natural health products sector in Canada has been regulated since 2004; the new Organic Products Regulations came into force June 30th, 2009, giving Canadians more confidence in the industry and its products. The CHFA represents 1,100 business owners and operators and is an industry that contributes $3.5 billion to the Canadian economy.
"Safety for Canadian consumers has always been our primary concern," continued Marrett. "Our industry is totally committed to this principle. In order for Canadians to continue to have access to safe, high quality NHPs, we are committed to continue to working with the federal government to resolve this impending disaster".
The CHFA continues to work with Health Canada on an ongoing basis to resolve these problems on a collaborative basis.
For more information on the CHFA, visit www.CHFA.ca OR SaveOurNaturalHealthProducts.ca
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Bill C-6 Battle Wages On: An Update on the Political Campaign to Protect NHPs
by Helke FerrieOn April 30, 2009, all four parties supported Bill C-6 without protest. True, MP Paul Szabo (Liberal, Mississauga North) and MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis (NDP, Winnipeg North) wanted assurances that C-6, to amend the Hazardous Products Act, would not affect regulation of natural health products. Judy Wasylycia-Leis reminded parliamentarians: "The furor that erupted after the introduction of Bill C-51 [to amend food and drugs regulation] and C-52 [the former version of C-6] last year was a result of the fact that the government failed to consider the need to clearly differentiate natural health products from current drug legislation."
Indeed, the pernicious fact is that C-51, C-52, and C-6 share regulatory provisions that were and are constitutionally insupportable and make a mockery of current medical and environmental science.
The Conservatives promised that C-6 has nothing to do with natural health products, pointing to Clause 4 (1). What they didn't say, and what the Opposition failed to recognize, is that if C-6 were to become law, any sort of consequential amendment to food and drugs legislation could be made, and that this could happen by a mere Order in Council, without any parliamentary debate. Nobody would know. This extraordinary power is written into Bill C-6, which also is explicitly exempted from the mandatory requirements of the Statutory Instruments Act, against which all Bills must be checked to ensure that they are in harmony with the Constitution. The authors of C-6 must know why they did that. Tested for its constitutionality, C-6 would not survive.
Parliamentarians went into summer recess assured that C-6 aims to protect Canadians from terrible poisons hidden in dangerous imports arriving from various foreign countries. Nobody even thought of asking why this Bill was exempt from being checked against the Constitution. Not one MP wondered why C-6 has these extraordinary powers that would make a judge's jaw drop. C-6 was sent off to the Senate. Having been approved by all parties, Harper & Co thought it unlikely to raise Senatorial hackles. The fact that this toxic products Bill is itself toxic to the rule of law, human rights, and our Constitution never surfaced at all in parliamentary debate. Parliament had been successfully bamboozled, misled, or was complicit.
If I had my way, every MP would have to pass, with at least 80% success, an exam in Canadian constitutional and international human rights law as a mandatory prerequisite to run for office. The examination results would be posted on the Internet and the major newspapers. Imagine the dazzling intellectual wattage that would illuminate our parliament as a result of this one precautionary measure!
Latest Developments in the Bill C-6 Battle
If you want something done in Canada, you do it in the winter. If you want to prevent something from being done, you do it in the summer. This tactic has worked for Liberals and Conservatives alike for at least a century. Therefore, Manitoba's Senator Sharon Carstairs' surprising move on June 23 to adjourn second reading of C-6 until September could at first be understood as summertime having arrived in Canada and that the living was easier without debating Bills. However, knowing her thoughtful work in the late 1990s, which made public the antiquated, inhumane policies that dictated chronic pain management, I suspect her decision to have C-6 discussed in the fall was based on her correct assessment of its assault on human rights.
C-6 was tabled in the Senate on September 16. Over the summer, determined and coordinated action by various health freedom groups resulted in each Senator receiving at least 600 e-mails or letters from across Canada protesting this Bill on the issue of its unconstitutionality. Having waded through the moral and legal morass of Bills C-51 and C-52 last year, this campaign went to the very heart of the matter: the loss of constitutionally guaranteed freedoms which were snuck into a Bill under the guise of protecting public health. By the time the Senators met to discuss C-6, they had read the Bill, its legal analysis, and got an earful from Canadians. The result: the Senators were furious.
More at http://www.vitalitymagazine.com/oct09_helkefeat Excerpted from Vitality Magazine, October 2009.
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Canadian Charter of Health Freedom Update
by The Charter TeamThe Charter of Health Freedom is proposed legislation that gives Natural Health Products and Traditional Medicines their own Act.
The Charter protects our access to Natural Health Products and Traditional Medicines by creating separate legal category for them. Rather than being deemed as dangerous drugs under the Food and Drugs Act, under the Charter Natural Health Products and Traditional Medicines are deemed to be safe, as they are in the United States.
The Charter of Health Freedom offers an appropriate, healthy, beneficial, safe and well-rooted change for regulating the natural health community. Canadians are protected by permitting unsafe products to be removed while at the same time ensuring that safe and effective treatments remain available.
CHARTER PETITION UPDATE:
As of Friday, October 2nd, there are 36,712 petition signatures.
WEBSITE UPDATE: The Truth About Public Safety
Check out the section, the Truth About Public Safety on the Charter website at www.charterofhealthfreedom.org.
There are several excellent articles that will give you insightful in natural health products and public safety.
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NOSB Wants to Solve the Problem of Mislabeled Organic Personal Care Products - Take Action Before the October 19, 2009
by Organic Consumers AssociationA committee of the USDA National Organic Standards Board wants to "Solve the Problem of Mislabeled Organic Personal Care." Their recommendation is to make sure that any use of the word "organic" on a personal care product is backed up by third-party certification to USDA standards for products that are "USDA Organic" or "Made With Organic Ingredients."
This is what OCA's Coming Clean campaign has been pushing the USDA to do for the last 5 years. Unfortunately, the USDA has been hostile to the idea and even USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, an advocate for organic agriculture, has resisted consumer pressure on this issue. So, the long struggle for USDA enforcement of organic standards in personal care continues.
The first step is to get the full NOSB to adopt the committee recommendation, "Solving the Problem of Mislabeled Organic Personal Care Products." The deadline for sending comments to the NOSB in advance of their November 3-5 meeting is October 19, 2009. Use the form at the link below to send a letter to Dep. Sec. Merrigan. Please personalize your letter. We will include a copy of it in OCA's written comments and testimony to the NOSB.
More at
http://organicconsumers.org/sos.cfm