Check It Out: Fines for selling garlic, but not hard drugs

By Joan Janzen

The pharmacist asked, “You've got Vitamin B-12 and B-6; have you taken these vitamins previously?” The customer replied, “You mean like b-4?”

Today, I will look at C-47, but it's not a vitamin; it's a Bill passed in Canada on June 22. Shawn Buckley, a constitutional lawyer, discussed the implications of the Bill on FayteneTV.

Shawn explained, "To give an indication of how strange this Bill is, look what's happening in BC. We have decriminalized hard drugs like cocaine, heroin, crystal meth, so you can sell or traffic those drugs, and you're not going to face any fine at all. But if you're selling illegal garlic or oregano oil, you are now facing a 5 million dollar fine. It's crazy!"

It does sound crazy, but unfortunately, it's true. Shawn said Health Canada is bringing in strict new penalties. Health Canada takes the position that you cannot share truthful health information, information that goes against the government's narrative. Since the passing of Bill C-47, natural health businesses that post information that Health Canada disagrees with are liable to a $5 million fine per day for everyone involved.

"Even the web guy who posts the link is liable to a $5 million fine. We're not talking about fraud because there's three different enforcement bodies that protect us against fraud," Shawn said. "For the first time in Canadian history, Canadians can't access Canadian studies."

Shawn used to represent Health Canada as a constitutional lawyer but has since become one of the litigators against them. In 1994, Health Canada was charging a herbalist with practicing medicine without a license, and they hired Shawn to defend the herbalist. "Health Canada was telling me it's dangerous to have someone selling a treatment for a serious health condition, so people are going to be fooled and delay proper treatment," he explained. "I bought into it, but then learned the truth."

"On the day of trial, I had five middle-class professional witnesses, who all had heart disease. Two of them were too weak to survive the surgery, so they weren't eligible and were sent home to die. The other three were not willing to go through with the surgery just to buy another year or two of life," Shawn explained. "So for them, the medical system was a dead end."

The witnesses all came across the alternative supplement treatment. They all got well. They were all working full-time at the time of the trial, and all of them had been disabled for years. "That convinced me that what Health Canada told me when I was acting for them was completely wrong," he said.

Now he sees Health Canada taking steps to corral the health supplement market into a chemical drug model so Canadians won't have the right to choose things like natural remedies, natural health practitioners and naturopathic doctors.

The passing of Bill C-47 means Health Canada is imposing new fees and stricter regulations on natural health businesses that will cause many of them to close, and their products will be gone. For the products that survive, the prices will increase because the producers will have to pass on their increased costs to the customer. This takes the remaining products away from those who can't afford the higher prices. Most Canadians would agree they want more access to health and wellness products, not less.

"I can't point to a single death caused by a natural health product in all of Canadian history, and yet a simple over-the-counter medication like Tylenol has caused death," Shawn said. "To say natural health products are risky is crazy."

Bill C-47 grants Health Canada extraordinary powers to basically come in and shut down a natural health business with significant fines if it considers a particular party in that business to be out of line. However, the United States treats natural health products much differently.

"The US developed legislation called the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act whereby natural health products are classed as foods, and they're deemed to be safe," he explained.

"Health Canada moved us into the chemical drug model. Supplements are presumed to be dangerous and classed as drugs and Health Canada can take them off the market for any reason," he said. "In fact, Canada doesn't even have to let a product onto the market; you have to get their permission."

In the interview, Faytene Grasseschi noted, "This is a full-on assault on our right to choose how we're going to treat ourselves. We're basically being told we only have one option (prescription drugs)."

Shawn's response was - we have to do something about it. He said the first step is to make MPs aware of what's happening and tell them we're unhappy about it and the changes that are necessary. We need to move back into a food model for supplements.

He organized the Natural Health Production Protection Association, a non-profit organization to protect our health rights. "We've got a campaign you can participate in to put pressure on your MPs," he advised.

Fines for selling oregano oil, but no fines for selling hard drugs. It sounds crazy, and it doesn't make any sense.