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Hello Nutrition Clients!

If you have not heard about the proposed Bill-C51 I urge you to look at the following websites for some background information: www.chfa.ca (my own preferred site as less dramatic and more poignant than many of the others) and www.stopbillc51.com

Basically, the federal government quietly tabled a motion to change the Food and Drug Act to the new name of the Food and Therapeutic Products Act. Notwithstanding many sections of the Act have been rewritten.

In so doing, all "natural health products" would be regulated using the same criteria as pharmaceutical drugs.

While I agree that the health product industry could be overseen more prudently, the measures outlined in this bill could have serious consequences regarding product availability, production and sales in the future.

One of the courses I currently teach at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition is The Fundamentals of The Nutrition Business. I am therefore well versed in current governmental laws regarding the sales of vitamins, minerals and other natural health products as they currently stand in Canada as well as future implications concerning Free Trade agreements.

Trust me when I say that I have taken my time to fully educate myself on the contents of this proposed bill and the possible impact on Canadians. As you will see from my letter, this Bill also leaves the door open for the future adoption of foreign laws concerning our foods and other products without the forum of parliamentary scrutiny.

Under this premise alone, I would oppose any Parlimentary Bill.

Bill C-51 passed first reading the beginning of April. A national compaign has been launched to alter the course of this Bill. It has yet to capture the attention of the media.

Please read on and perhaps you will feel inspired to join in the democratic process.

For your interest, I have attached a copy of my own letter to the Ministers in question asking them to delay passage Bill C-51 until all Canadians can voice their opinions.

Best regards to you all,

Liz

May 2008

The Honourable J. Volpe

511 Lawrence Ave W

Toronto Ontario

M6A 1A3

Dear Mr. Volpe:

I am writing to you as a constituent and a local business owner concerned about the future of natural health products. The newly introduced Bill C-51 appears to unfairly target natural health products by placing them and therefore regulating them in the same category as pharmaceutical drugs.

As my Member of Parliament, I ask your help to ensure that natural health products are treated fairly. Natural Health Products need to be a third and therefore entirely separate category as far as Health Canada regulations are concerned. Food is one category, pharmaceutical products are another. Natural Health Products are neither one nor the other and should therefore be treated as their own entity.

Please review Bill C-51 and fight to make sure natural health products are not eliminated as a viable consumer choice in Canada.

I am also very alarmed with Section 30(7). This section appears to provide the Government of Canada with the opportunity to not only change regulations concerning natural health supplements without the full democratic and publicly open process of a Parlimentary vote but it also seemingly permits the Government of Canada to adopt any foreign country’s law(s) concerning foods and the newly coined phrase “therapeutic products” in the same undemocratic manner.

I strongly maintain that the issues raised in Bill C-51 are of such utmost importance to the health and democratic principles of all Canadians now and in the future that it warrants the open scrutiny of a Standing Committee rather than the quiet and seemingly sly manner that is the current method of delivery.

I look forward to your response and input.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Clarke, B.A., RHN, RNCP