Canadian Parliament to Study Natural Health Products -- Again

by Peter Barry Chowka

The Standing Committee on Health of Canada's Parliament announced on November 28 that it will study the legislation and regulation of natural health products in Canada.

According to a release by Canada Newswire, "The Committee said that it will consult with Canadians regarding the appropriate regulatory framework for the availability and use of traditional medicines, homeopathic preparations, and vitamin and mineral supplements. The study will conclude with the presentation of a report to the House of Commons that will recommend how to best protect consumers while giving them access and freedom of choice in the use of natural health products."

The Chair of the Committee is Ms. Beth Phinney, M.P., a member of the Liberal Party who represents Hamilton-Mountain. She commented, "This is the first time that the subject of natural health products has been addressed in detail by parliamentarians. Stakeholders will be invited to present their views. We also intend to consider the natural health products strategies used in other countries."

Zoltan Rona, MD, a leading holistic physician in Toronto and an author who actively monitors political developments involving health care, commented about the committee that "It's nonsense. Why do they have to study this? They've had two other committees during the past decade, on herbs and amino acids. Both of them were studied for well over a year, in secret meetings. Various recommendations were made to the [Canadian] Minister of Health, and they were promptly ignored. It's just going to go on and on. It's a delaying tactic by the government hoping that opposition [by the Canadian public to controls on supplements] will go away."

Debbie Anderson, of Citizens' Voice for Health Rights, a Canadian consumer health organization, echoed Rona's critique: The new Committee, she said, "is just another smoke screen created by. . .the Health Protection Branch to continue with its original agenda, which is to reclassify our dietary supplements as drugs. They are still reclassifying and removing products from the market as we speak, thereby forcing small businesses out of the market. These businesses are either going broke or are being bought up by the bigger players. This is the same old boys' business practices which are eroding the fundamental rights of health care consumers throughout the world."

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