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Bill C51 in Canada

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Message Linn Cohen-Cole
Citizens in Canada have wrung some changes from the government in regard to Bill C51 it
but the bill is so draconian that it stands as a warning about corporate/government agencies efforts to destroy the alternative movements that are growing, whether in health or in food, and the means that they are using.



The bill derives its forces from the Codex Alimentarius, created by the United Nations in 1962, through a series of relationships between The World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well as the American FDA and USDA.   

The dangerous elements of the Codex are first, that these standards are devised as international rules intended for world-wide adoption, and second, that they classify nutrients as toxins. 

"The Codex Commission decided—with the support of the United States—to use something called Risk Assessment, which assesses the maximum level of a substance – in this case a nutrient -- that may be ingested without causing any discernable biological effect.  

Risk Assessment is a branch of Toxicology, a.k.a. the science of toxins (as opposed to the science of nutrition). In a sane world, it is used to assess how much of a toxic substance you can safely eat without noticing any physical effects or problems. As soon as there is a biological effect, you have hit the upper, maximum limit for that substance.  

Codex is slowly but surely shimmying into position to mandate the universal maximum “safe” level of every vitamin, mineral, supplement and herb that may legally be manufactured, used or sold -- with “safe” being a level that has no physical effect."  

Bill C51 would amend Canadian law to allow trade agreements to become law without Parliamentary involvement and "for the regulation to incorporate documents produced by a foreign state or subdivision of a foreign state."  If Canada adopts the Codex rules, supplements would be treated on a toxicology scale and if the North American Union goes into effect, the United States and Mexico would "may have little choice but to fall under the same umbrella of laws and standards."

So, what happens in Canada could be our future.  

"And, even if you refuse to believe that the North American Union will ever take place, passing similar, potentially restricting natural health laws in the U.S. will be a whole lot easier if Canada sets the precedent."

What seems critical to watch in all the current large bills aimed at "protecting" our health or food, is the radical alteration of terminology.  Bill C51, for instance, replaces the word "drug" with "therapeutic product,” the same term for all natural products, thus setting natural products up to be controlled as though they were drugs, and "toxins."  More, the bill redefines "sell" which we have always understood to mean to distribute with consideration - that is, for payment of some kind.  

But the new definition of "sell" in Bill C51 is “includes offer for sale, expose for sale or have in possession for sale, or distribute to one or more personswhether or not the distribution is made for consideration and in relation to a device, includes lease, offer for lease, expose for lease or have in possession for lease.” 

That is, for free.  This would include sharing and giving, and the criminalization of either if the thing being shared were any nutrient  the government wished to control.  That could include herbs and even food.  Raw milk people, alert by now?  Seed bankers should also be on the edge of their seats since all of this is coming down from the Codex was influenced by the WTO and our USDA and FDA, which are Monsanto controlled.  And seed banking is the sane, generous, caring, biodiversity-protective solution to the genetically engineered patented and biologically devastating trap Monsanto has lured farmers into around the world.

Mercola reports that "Canadian Health Minister Tony Clement decided to make some vital changes to the bill after rallies were organized across Canada by the Canadian Health Food Association, which represents manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers in the natural products industry.


The Natural Health Products Protection Association also launched a campaign to rid the bill of its "police state" powers to search private property for illegal products, stating the proposed legislation “read like a police state manual."

After hearing the opposition, Mr. Clement admitted that “it became clear that some things that we thought were implicit in the bill needed to be spelled out.”

Mercola says that to him "that particular statement sounds a bit funny coming from a lawyer (he was previously employed as legal counsel with the law firm Bennett Jones LLP.), and this incident of “oops, I didn’t see those loopholes,” unfortunately ends up smelling like industry infiltration."  

 Now, for the petition:


 

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Met libertarian and conservative farmers and learned an incredible amount about farming and nature and science, as well as about government violations against them and against us all. The other side of the fence is nothing like what we've been (more...)
 
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