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ARTICLES Political Update, Fall 1997 On the federal political front, this has been a very busy and productive year. The following is an update of the current political situation that has evolved over the last year and a half and the very important role that the CCHPA has played throughout this process. Back in the spring of 1996, the political situation was evolving as it always has. Health Canada was becoming increasingly more oppressive with respect to the regulation of natural health products. True to the ongoing trend, the primary target of their activities were herbs and herbal products. Unfortunately, the herbal and natural health products industry in Canada has a very poor political track record. It has always taken a crisis-management approach. Not what you would expect from an industry that promotes "holism" as the basis of it's philosophy. In the past, the industry has tended to do very little in response to government actions. Once in a while, however, a few of the more outspoken have been known to kick up a big fuss, complete with name-calling and accusations of international conspiracies, on occasions when the situation is particularly hot. These outbursts have generally been short-lived and everyone seems to go back to sleep after the slightest illusion of success. The situation has not been helped by the fact that some members of the industry have a history of making exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims and/or manufacturing products that do not meet appropriate quality standards. I'm afraid that in the herbalist community, things have not been much different. We have been so caught up in our individual ego trips and we have not been able to come to any consensus about what we want, never mind how to achieve it. As a result, our political activity had amounted to virtually nothing. Over the last seven years I have been involved in numerous attempts to bring about positive change on the political front that have all had little to no effect. The reason has always been the same: lack of political will and inability to put aside personal differences and work for the good of the whole. In May of 1996, the situation changed radically. Faced with a number of oppressive political initiatives on the part of Health Canada and the realization that a significant percentage of natural health products, particularly herbs, were likely to disappear from the marketplace in the very near future, a significant shift of attitude took place. It began a political snowball effect that continues to this day. At that time, Sandy and Joel Thuna of Global Botanical in Barrie, called an emergency meeting in an attempt to rally some political will. At this meeting, it was recognized that the primary problem with Health Canada is the fact that their "experts" consist of pharmacists, medical doctors, biochemists, toxicologists and other professionals that have absolutely no meaningful knowledge or experience in the field of natural healing. In addition, these individuals tend to be indoctrinated into a philosophy that is radically different and often hostile to the philosophy of those in our field. There was a recognition that the herbal industry has it's own experts (i.e. herbalists) and that our expertise should be utilized as a means of countering the view espoused by Health Canada. Those in attendance at this meeting included members of various sectors of the herbal industry, representatives of the Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA) and several members of the board of directors of the CCHPA. It was decided that we would form an ad hoc committee, tentatively called the Therapeutic Botanicals Advisory Committee (TBAC), and meet regularly through the spring and summer months to develop a series of proposals for regulatory change with respect to herbs and herbal products. The Committee met biweekly from May to August of 1996. The work of drafting a series of proposals based on the principles that were discussed during our meetings was handled by the members of the CCHPA. The result was two important documents: "A Proposal for the Rational Regulation of Therapeutic Botanicals" and a proposed format for a "Therapeutic Botanicals Status Manual." The "Manual" was intended to included labeling standards or "mini-monographs" of herbs based on both the traditional and scientific literature. It was recognized by the members of the committee that the problems affecting herbal regulation equally apply to the regulation of all natural health products. As a result, although we focused on the herbal issue, we proposed solutions that could easily be applied to other categories of natural health products. This position was stated in the contents of the "Proposal" along with some indications as to how it might be accomplished. In September, the third draft of these documents was presented to the members of the CHFA at their fall trade show in Toronto in order to obtain some feedback from the industry. They were also presented, at that time, to a number of herbalists throughout the country representing other provincial herbal associations. All of the feedback that we received was very supportive and we were strongly encouraged to continue our work. Following the trade show, another important step in this process took place. It was recognized that the federal government prefers to negotiate with federal associations. Add to this the obvious benefits of strength in numbers, especially if those numbers have national representation. As a result, it was decided that our "experts" (i.e. herbalists) would have more clout if they were represented by a national association. Therefore, the directors of the CCHPA who had been involved with the TBAC spearheaded the creation of the Canadian Coalition of Herbal Associations (CCHA). The CCHA was conceived as a national coalition of provincial herbal associations that will represent herbalists across the country on two important fronts: (1) negotiations with the federal government on the regulation of herbs and herbal products, and (2) creating national standards of education for herbalists and helping provincial herbalist associations to negotiate with their respective provincial governments to establish these standards and obtaining official recognition and self-regulation for the profession. At the time, it was agreed that I would become the interim president of the CCHA, and that the board of directors would include a representative of each member association. All of the provincial associations were supportive of the CCHA, in principle. We did, however, have some difficulty setting things up due to lack of funds and difficulty recruiting individuals as directors. Nevertheless, with the CCHPA carrying the torch, the CCHA has been an important player in the federal political arena since the fall of 1996. Other members include the Canadian Herbal Practitioners Association of British Columbia (confirmed), the Saskatchewan Consultant Herbalist Association (confirmed), the Ontario Herbalists' Association (tentative), la Guilde des Herboristes (tentative) and the Canadian Association of Herbal Practitioners (tentative). In October, shortly after the formation of the CCHA, another import piece of the political puzzle fell into place. At that time, there was a general recognition that our political initiative needed to be expanded in order to maximize its impact. First of all, we needed to expand our focus to include all natural health products (herbs, nutritional supplements, homeopathics, etc.). Secondly, we needed to expand our support base to include maximum representation of all three layers of constituents that are affected by these issues. These include practitioners (herbalists, naturopaths, etc.), industry members and consumers. With this goal in mind, we arranged a meeting with members of the Ontario chapter of Citizens for Choice in Health Care. At this meeting there was an overwhelming consensus about the next steps that needed to be taken, the Canadian Coalition for Health Freedom (CCHF) was formed, and the rest is history. The CCHF formally announced itself at a political rally at the Whole Life Expo in Toronto in December 1996. The founding member associations included the CCHPA, the CCHA, the Ontario Herbalists' Association, la Guilde des Herboristes, the Canadian Health Food Association, Citizens for Choice in Health Care, the Canadian Complementary Medicine Association, the Canadian Naturopathic Association, the Ontario Naturopathic Association, the British Columbia Naturopathic Association, the Ontario Homeopathic Association, the Ontario Society of Homeopaths and the Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture Association. During the early months of 1997, the CCHPA and the CCHA worked very hard within the umbrella of the CCHF. We created a national political campaign that dwarfed anything that has ever been initiated in this country before with respect to health issues. Our campaign was launched at the beginning of the spring election campaign. During that period, we received tremendous media coverage and stimulated hundreds of thousands of Canadians to write letters, send faxes, meet with MP's and protest at public appearances of (then) Health Minister David Dingwall. We received official endorsement from both the NDP and Reform parties and individual pledges of support from many Liberal candidates. All of the political parties were taken by surprise. From their perspective, a non-existent issue had come out of nowhere and strongly influenced the election campaign. In a last-ditch effort to appease the voters, the Prime Minister's Office had David Dingwall announce the formation of the Advisory Panel on Herbal Remedies. But it was too late for Dingwall. He lost his seat in the election. With the formation of the Advisory Panel on Herbal Remedies, we won a minor victory. I was appointed to the panel as a representative of the CCHA. The members of the panel are almost completely supportive of our cause. Initially, Health Canada attempted to restrict our activity. We quickly overcame these restrictions by forcing them to agree to the following: (a) that the mandate of the Panel would be expanded to include all natural health products (the name of the Panel was subsequently changed to the Advisory Panel on Natural Health Products); (b) that the results of our meetings would be available to the public on the Health Canada website; and (c) that a representative of the Health Minister's office would attend all meetings and report directly to him (now Allan Rock). The Advisory Panel on Natural Health Products (APNHP) has met three times so far and our work is proceeding in a positive direction. The model that is unfolding, if adopted, will give Canada the most progressive natural health product regulations in the world. The representatives of the Therapeutic Products Programme (TPP) seem to have come a long way in their understanding of the issues. Although our meetings have been somewhat stormy at times, especially the first, we are gradually experiencing a converging of points of view. More recently, the TPP representatives have been more supportive than expected of the views put forward by the Panel. They have given substantial ground with respect to interim policies, a very contentious issue with the Panel since it may take several years before any proposed reforms come into effect. Our most significant achievement has been the scrapping of the much hated TPP "Status Manual." This is the policy document that condemned a significant number of natural health products (especially herbs) to the black hole status of "New Drugs." Now many herbs like hawthorn, black cohosh and pau d'arco, that were formerly taken off the market, are once again allowed for sale as long as they don't have any claims on their labels. More recently, another important development has taken our cause several steps further. On October 4, 1997, as the fall post-election campaign of the CCHF was building, Allan Rock, in the presence of more than a dozen Liberal MP's and representatives of the CCHF, made an important announcement. The issue of natural health products will be addressed by the Standing Committee on Health. This Committee will conduct national hearings with stakeholders representing consumers, industry members and practitioners to get input on this issue. When their hearings are complete, they will report their findings to the Health Minister. As a result, the whole consultation process will be opened up further. In an unprecedented move, Allan Rock asked the CCHF to speak at his announcement. I was honored to be able to speak on behalf of the Coalition. Afterwards he, and many of the MP's present (including several members of the Standing Committee on Health), met with representatives of the founding associations of the CCHF (including Peter Laker as a representative of the CCHPA, and myself as a representative of the CCHA). During our meeting, Mr. Rock personally assured me of his commitment to solving this issue. He also confirmed his belief in the importance of the work of the Advisory Panel. Upon completion of its work, the Advisory Panel will also make a submission to the Standing Committee on Health. Although many very important advances have been made in the last year, this process is far from over. If we, as herbalists, wish to continue to practice unrestricted and have access to the herbs or our choice, we must keep up the pressure to ensure that things continue to move in the right direction. In the coming months, the CCHF and its member associations (including the CCHPA and the CCHA) will all be making submissions to the Standing Committee on Health. We are committed to making sure that our views are heard and addressed. In the mean time, keep up the pressure. Don't stop writing letters and harassing your local MP's. They need to be clear that this issue will not go away until something substantial is accomplished. This article was originally published in the Central Canadian Herbal Practitioners Association Newsletter, Fall 1997. Back to List of Articles |
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