Canadians urged to keep up pressure over unconstitutional Bill C-6
The Alliance for Natural Health has received recent articles on the situation in Canada from Helke Ferrie, Canadian journalist, publisher and writer. These provide an ideal opportunity for an update on the disturbing and unconstitutional Bill C-6, which concerned, health-conscious Canadians are working hard to overturn or amend…..
What is so worrying about the C-6 Bill?
Shawn Buckley, the lawyer who has been at the front of the Canadian assault on C-6, and who heads up the Natural Products Health Protection Association (NHPPA) in Canada has long-stated that Bill C-6 ends the ‘rule of law’ in Canada. It would mean a fundamental change in the rights and freedoms of Canadians and would give the government unprecedented rights which could bring Canada’s natural products industry to its knees.
View Sean Buckley talking about Bill C-6.
In Helke Ferrie’s words:
“C-6 abolishes protection from trespass, a court-ordered warrant, and the need for court-supervised search and seizure; it bypasses existing laws on privacy and confidentiality and explicitly exempts the Minister of Health and government inspectors from any kind of third-party oversight and accountability; the need to publish regulations governing the activities of the inspectors is abolished, too; accused individuals have their access to the courts seriously limited; even the assumption of innocence is gone; astronomical fines are to be handed out for crimes committed on the Minister’s assumption of guilt which requires no supporting evidence for independent examination; even the corporate shield would disappear, because corporate directors would be legally liable for the actions of their employees – which actions would be deemed criminal solely on the opinion of the Minister, not by the courts; finally, this bill allows foreign governments and institutions, like CODEX and the World Trade Organization, to have the same powers over Canadians in all these matters outlined above, as if they were part of our own government”
Senator Elaine McCoy (during Senate Debate on Bill C-6, September 16, 2009) is one of a few senators who has expressed serious concerns about Bill C-6:
“…what on earth are we imposing on the people of Canada with this kind of totalitarian tactic that is being endorsed and spread through this legislation into the tiniest corners of our lives? It even gives the minister … the ability to take the word of a foreign government on which to base decisions in Canada!”
The above quotes, and following summary points are taken from the article ‘Report from the C-6 trenches’ by Helke Ferrie, for Vitality Magazine, October 2009:
Summary Points
- All four Parliamentary parties supported Bill C-6 on April 30, 2009 without protest (although certain MPs wanted assurances that C-6, to amend the Hazardous Products Act, would not affect regulation of natural health products)
- The Conservatives promised that C-6 has nothing to do with natural health products, pointing to Clause 4 (1). (However, if C-6 were to become law, any sort of consequential amendment to food and drugs legislation could be made, and this could happen by a mere Order in Council, without any parliamentary debate. Nobody would know)
- C-6 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. MPs did not query this.
- C6 was sent to the Senate. Manitoba’s Senator Sharon Carstair adjourned the second reading of C-6 on June 23 until September, possibly due to the human rights concerns within the Bill.
- C-6 was tabled in the Senate on September 16, 2009.
- 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. This apparently infuriated the Senators.
- Meanwhile, natural health products (NHPs), which kill nobody and help people to maintain their health and wellbeing, continue to be under attack in blatantly illegal ways including raids at gunpoint. The Canadian Coalition for Health Freedom provided the documented case histories of these events to the Senate. This is highly significant, because Health Canada is acting already as if C-6 was in place and as if consequential amendments had also been made to the Food and Drugs Act. Passing C-6 would legalize Health Canada’s out-of-control behavior
- Despite the total lack of provable harm and in blatant disregard of their effectiveness, the 70,000 NHPs available in 2004 have been reduced to less than 40,000 by 2009. These will be reduced by about 50-70% yet again, starting in January 2010 because most cannot meet the approval process designed for synthetic drugs. Why not? Because, unlike synthetic drugs, NHPs aren’t toxic, but involve essential nutrients; hence, toxicity studies required for synthetic drugs cannot be performed. Also, unlike synthetic drugs, NHPs work best when working together with other nutrients, i.e. synergistically, while toxic drugs tend to deliver one major active ingredient.
- Senator McCoy, Senator Jerahmiel S. Grafstein and Senator Joseph A. Day spoke of their serious concerns about C-6, and the Senate entered the bill into a serious review process involving privacy law, constitutional and criminal law tests.
- The Senate has the power to stop a bill – they did it six times already - but will only do so if they keep hearing from many Canadians. This is not over! Your letters, e-mails, and continued support to kill C-6 and prevent its resurrection after the next election is absolutely vital. Visit the websites listed below Helke’s actual article, and join this effort.
Sound familiar?….
Helke Ferrie writes:
“In 2008, when I was researching the origins of bill C-51 (food and drugs) and C-52 (hazardous products, now C-6) for my book of What Part of No! Don’t They Understand? (free on www.kospublishing.com), I was struck by the eerie similarities and frequent use of identical wording found in these bills introduced in the parliaments of the EU, Australia, the USA, and Canada. Trade treaties alone could not explain this cloning. Treaties are supposed to enable countries with different national priorities to find common methods of exchange. When countries with different social histories, regional priorities, government ideologies, and saleable goods mysteriously propose virtually identical regulatory legislation which would wipe out all visible differences, this drastic leveling process begs the question, ‘Who profits?’”
… Funny that… Any citizens of the EU, Australia and the USA who are reading this are no doubt thinking that all this sounds eerily familiar, and are probably thinking about that question too? We think that, by now, they have all joined the dots and have a pretty good idea who profits…..!
Canadians - Find your senator
Go to the government website: www.canada.gc.ca Send email to: info@parl.gc.ca Call toll-free: 1 (866) 599-4999 Or write: The Senate of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario Canada K1A 0A4 (no postage required)
Other relevant Vitality Articles
'GMOs/Organics' - Canadian article by Helke Ferrie, Vitality, July/August 2009
'Activists Gather' - Canadian article by Helke Ferrie, Vitality, April 2009
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Updated: 4 Dec 2009
