Around 100 people braved the cold, the wind and the rain to stand outside the Victoria Legislature last Sunday to protest the government’s plan to eliminate 75 per cent of Canada’s natural health products.
Person after person came forward to say how switching from pharmaceutical drugs to natural heath products had literally saved their lives. Statistics show that over 15,000 people a year die in Canada alone through the use of prescription drugs and yet nobody has ever died through using natural health products.
So why is our government removing the good stuff? I’ll tell you why. It’s all to do with profits for the big pharmaceutical companies. Follow the money. Natural health products contain no man-made chemicals and cannot be patented.
Aren’t the billions of dollars a year that these companies are already making enough?
The government’s job is to serve and protect. That’s what being a public servant is all about.
It’s time to send the government a message and remind them they work for the people and not the other way around.
In the late 1990’s, Canadians protested for increased access to natural health products with what remains the largest public petition ever recorded in its history. Health Canada has ignored the wishes of Canadians by introducing this ban on herbs, vitamins and nutrients.
John St. John
Parksville
