As we may very well be aware, one of the greatest lies out there is, “Hello, we are from the government, we are here to help you”. This is exactly what is happening now with the introduction of Bill C-51, a controversial new bill introduced in the House of Commons, which already had its first reading on April 08, 2008. This Bill will kill every freedom you thought you had when purchasing and using alternative and natural health products and devices.

Promoted as a means to protect the safety of Canadians from untested natural health products, Bill C-51 is a wide reaching, little publicized and carefully crafted set of amendments to the federal Food & Drug Act that threatens Canadians' rights to natural health products. The government bills it as “An Act to amend the Food and Drugs Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts”. What is that about?

Here is the official government summary of this act: “This enactment amends the Food and Drugs Act to modernize the regulatory system for foods and therapeutic products, to strengthen the oversight of the benefits and risks of therapeutic products throughout their life cycle, to support effective compliance and enforcement actions and to enable a greater transparency and openness of the regulatory system. It also amends other Acts in consequence and includes transitional provisions and coordinating amendments”.

This particular Bill in some distorted way, gives the illusion of keeping Canadians safe from unsanitary manufacturing facilities, unsubstantiated claims and manufacturers that do not comply with other similar rules. However, there are some real concerns we should all have.

For example, if you are a wearer of contact lenses or even a hearing aid, this bill could very well affect you, as these are considered medical devices. Contact lenses or hearing aids, pregnancy test kits, orthotics and other similar “devices” will be regulated differently which means they will cost you more because you will not just be able to buy them anywhere that is an “unapproved facility”.

The Orwellian scary part comes now paragraph 20.9 states that the Minister may disclose personal information to a person or government that carries out functions relating to the protection and promotion of human health without consent of the individual to whom the personal information relates.

If you want to read the entire Bill C-51 in its entirety, which I recommend you do, you can go to:

Bill C-51

What I think this Bill C-51 will mean to the average consumer of natural health products in Canada is that many products you readily purchase at a health food store now, will only be available through practitioners of that field such as Naturopaths, Homeopaths, Chiropractors and Acupuncturists and so on. This also means that the price will go way up. If these products are not available from the above mentioned practitioners then you will possibly need a prescription from a MD.

Bill C-51 moves away from the use of the term “drug” and introduces the term “therapeutic products”. Indeed even the name of the “Food and Drugs Act” will be changed to “An Act respecting foods, therapeutic products and cosmetics.”

The definition of “drug” remains unchanged but a new definition of “therapeutic product” is added which includes drugs, medical devices and cells, tissues or organs. However, the term “drug” is replaced throughout the old Food and Drugs Act with the term “therapeutic products”. Natural Health Products remain “drugs” under the Act. The only change is that now all drugs are referred to as “therapeutic products” in the Act instead of as drugs.

It is now very important that you get those political types that were elected as MPs to start acting on your behalf, forget what is right for the current government’s agenda especially since it has mostly been hidden, and do what is right for you and your health.