Further to yesterdays outrage post, I have received quite a bit of feedback. But I was very interested where some of that feedback has originated.
Late last night, a CPC staffer, who asked not to be named, leaked me a set of memos and legal briefs on C-51, establishing not only do the Conservatives want this bill passed, but the PMO is putting it's full weight behind getting it through, in it's current form.
Needless to say, this is not a Liberal leftover bill as some commenters have pondered. It is a purebred Conservative bill, and it would appear that many cabinet ministers are lucidly aware of it's contents, as is the PMO.
I also received a phone call from someone who would remain nameless, who notes that very little if any external consultation was done for this bill. There was no consultation with provincial health ministries, none with potentially other interested parties.
This bill literally looks like something the Conservatives want to silently ram through parliament. We must deny them that.
E-mail or call your MP. Deluge newspapers with editorial comments, etc. Stop this additional incursion into civil liberties.
What is Bill C-51?
But why? Why is the CPC doing this? What's the purpose And spare the sarcastic "Harper is reborn Liberal statist control freak turned Trudeau." I respect the PM and believe that he does everything with a purpose.
What's the purpose???
What's the background behind this bill? Does anybody know?
Mike is this legislation being silently rammed through parliment to benifit "Parmecutical Companies", the health food and vitimen and holistic medicine industry is very loosely regulated if this bill passes it gives the Government unlimited power to target this industry. As per the norm big money is usually behind this kind of legislation, ergo is the PM protecting the interest of the big boys?
There two other issues I can think of that might be effected by this legisliation: Illigal drug manufacturing, i.e. Ecstasy and online drug stores. Both have made billions of dollars shipping their products into the US.
Anyone else got any ideas on why this is being rammed through parliment without public knowledge or input?
Lori Harper isn't conservative, he just posed as one until he could get elected. His leadship todate is pure liberal dogma, he's also a noted liar. Might I remind you of Income Trusts and the Atlantic Accord, he openingly lied and then reversed his decision.
Do I trust this man? NO, I'm appalled at the blind loyalty that the supporters of the Conservative Party are showing. I hold him no less accountable than I would a Liberal PM.
Hi Mike, I let my MP know about this today. Any word on why the PMO would be backing this thing, or is it another black bag deal from our beloved Ottawa Mandarins?
Sorry, I don't buy conspiracy theories...
We need more info on who identified the need for this bill and why.
PM Harper has too long a history of being a conservative, during the hard times, for me to believe the type of nonsense Rose is spouting.
Hi Mike,
If I'm following your drift correctly would you then agree with the recent Supreme Court decision to ban use of sniffer dogs?
jon, you'd be correct in assuming that. I have never been a fan of the expediency of justice.
If you want to search the bags of children going to school, then setup security checkpoints at the doors and establish that there is to be no reasonable expectation of privacy there. Random spot-checks infringe upon the reasonable expectation of privacy that one would have absent these upfront measures.
I'm not anti-police, and I've long felt that our police need to be well-funded, well-equipped and be well-supported. I do not believe, they need more legal powers as other conservatives increasingly believe they do for drug enforcement, anti-terrorist activities and the likes.
It's always been a strange thing to me, that while many conservatives claim to adhere to the mantra of less government, and less state inference in daily life, that when it comes to law enforcement, they increasingly take the attitude that "if you have nothing to hide, there's no problem" and generally support giving police greater powers as such.
In the US, they increasingly support government conducting warrantless monitoring of domestic telecommunications, increased use of data mining systems to detect "suspicious financial transactions", etc.
All of this amounts to a marked decrease in privacy, and will one day serve to assist in the vast centralization of power.
The democracies of today, are building the tools for the autocracies of tomorrow. You'll excuse me if I want no part in that.
C-51 seems to be drafted with all the best intents and as a timely reaction to bogus and poisonous foods, suppliments, fraudulent patent drugs and holistic suppliments coming into the country from China and other places known for heavy retail fraud operations.
But with everything, the devil is in the details and the language and definitions in this are significantly loose enough to be abused to seal the fate of the legitimate non-corporate natural food supplement industry (small by comparison to big pharma "remedy" sales) It endangers natural source vitamin, nutrient and herbal holistic healing supplements...it does so in a furtive intreretive statute sledge hammer way that even astounds me...I can't be sure if this is intentional or just a matter of inept draftmanship...but it certainly expands the size and intrusive power of bureaucracy ( so much for small-government conservatism).
With all legislating it is not the intent of the bill but its potential for abuse which it must be evaluated by....and this baby can be reinterpreted to virtually destroy a petty competitor of the pharma and Medical industry...the natural supplement health business.
If this wasn't written by an Apotex and the CMA legal team It sure reads like it.
This bill as worded is loaded with potential for abuse of interpretation...this is the type of crap the Libranos did routinely.
I'm deeply shaken by this...particularly the search-seizure and inspection provisions ...more so than I was disappointed with the open fraud of bill c-21. Something is amiss in the PMO and I'm not convinced Harper's personal ethos are being heeded or respected...I wonder if there is some influence brokering going on by party appointees.
http://www.stopc51.com/
http://www.stopc51.com/
I guess someone in the CPC apparatus thinks that vitamin suppliments are too cost effective and keeping too many people healthy....there's no profit in healthy people for big pharma....or in the public billing systems of CMA members.
BTW: Look at the way the legal definition od "sell" was changed in this statute...this emperils contract sanctity and negates the statute of frauds in effect in mant provinces as well as makes not for profit private individuals accountable to commercial regulatory law...who wrote this Alan Rock?..Alan? Are you hiding in some bureaucracy somewhere and getting civil rights-blind Tories to rubberstamp your legislative drafts??
Hon. Tony Clement:
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to address the member's comments at this time. I state categorically and for the record, there is nothing targeted to the natural health products industry in the bill. There is nothing that is draconian in terms of the effects of pricing and availability in the bill. Indeed, we seek to ensure that natural health products are available to Canadians.
Of course we are always concerned about safety and efficacy, particularly safety. Natural health products, just as prescription drugs and certain other therapeutic products, have to be available in a safe way to Canadians.
I would say for a purveyor or manufacturer of a natural health product, if what is on the label is accurate and if what is claimed about the natural health product is accurate, there is nothing to fear from the legislation. Indeed, our government and our caucus want more natural health products on the marketplace for more choice for Canadians, but we will not stand by if there is a dangerous product.
I issue warnings practically every week about this or that dangerous product, some of which are natural health products, which can have an impact on cardiac arrest, strokes or liver damage. Things can have this kind of impact. We do not want those products available. We want Canadians to be warned and we want them to be safe.
On April 8th, 2008 the Federal Minister of Health introduced Bill C-51 into the House of Commons. The Bill passed first reading. April 21st in the Lethbridge Herald I saw an advertisement for new safety measures for Natural Health Products (NHPs). After taking some time to actually read the proposed bill (Bill C-51) I have some serious concerns.
The bill would give inspectors the power to enter and search an establishment without a warrant, confiscate records, equipment, and products, and hold them at the expense of the business. Inspectors would be able to impose fines, seize business and personal accounts, and even give business or personal information to any agency, department, or government that the minister deems necessary. The bureaucracy would be able to introduce other international treaties and trade agreements into law without the approval of elected officials or debate in the House of Commons. Freedom of choice and access to the rich diversity of natural health products would be greatly restricted. Ultimately the Bill would trample our rights and freedoms guaranteed under our National Charter: The Constitution. What laws, in force now, would prevent an unscrupulous person from being brought to justice?
We should use extreme care before lending our support to any proposed law or government program. We should fully recognize that government is no plaything. “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence – it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master!” (The Red Carpet, p.142) this proposed Bill is an instrument of force and unless our conscience is clear that we would not hesitate to put a person to death, put him in jail or forcibly deprive him of his property for failing to obey a given law, we should oppose it.
Consider the story of a personal friend of mine, Mr. Anthony Stephan. Several members of his family suffer with bipolar disorder. His wife suffered for years and finally committed suicide. When medications failed to work he developed a nutritional supplement that really helped his children. He could have kept it a secret but he didn’t. He now makes his living making that supplement and helping others. Independent scientists have duplicated his findings and published their findings. After almost ten years Health Canada still has not given him a license to sell this product in Canada.
What would this new law do to Mr. Stephan and others like him? If you feel justified in sending them to prison and depriving them of their businesses and property then you must vote for Bill C-51. Solutions to real life problems are independent of government, or in other words, government is not the source of answers to real life problems. Individuals like Mr. Stephan are. We the people are! My conscience certainly would not be clear in voting for this Bill. I believe in; innocent until proven guilty. I also believe that ten guilty men should go free rather than one innocent man be unjustly prosecuted and imprisoned.
Voice your opposition to Bill C-51.
"I would say for a purveyor or manufacturer of a natural health product, if what is on the label is accurate and if what is claimed about the natural health product is accurate, there is nothing to fear from the legislation."
Oh well there ya go...we have Tony Clement's word there is no potential for abuse in this shoddy draconian regualtory draft.
Tony was a poor prevaricator in Queens park and I see little has changed.
Mike,
I've been busy and so I'm late to the party. Here's my take - it's the lawyers in the Department of Justice that need to be brought under control. The passages you have highlited in your previous post are eerily reminiscent of the Firearms Act. Yes, this has previously been alluded to - and I'm backing it because that there is the problem as they say. Skip, I believe, gave an excellent overview of the problem as it faces the CPC.
Can you fire 150 (maybe more?)lawyers? Probably not. Can you direct them to change their way of thinking and then apply their new-found humanity into the documents that are used to rule us? Hmmm, perhaps Harper could do that I suppose. Do you think that would work? Or do you think that one or perhaps 149 of the swine lawyers at Justice might be a closet Liberal or NDP flake that will run and tell the Toronto Star that the Harper government is trying to rewrite Canadian law?
Mike, you know it ain't all or nothing. That comes in the next election when the CPC gains a majority or conversely, are sent to the backbenches for another decade while the leftists / statists / Rabble crowd are in control. Then we'll have lots to bitch about if we can still afford computers.
Anyhoo, just my thoughts - wrong hill to die on methinks. Your mileage may vary....
FYI, this is the largest & fastest growing group on Facebook about C-51, including media links, debates, nat'l rallies (including Sat May 10th), CODEX, and much more. Feel free to check it out if it's of interest -
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12580615687