Canadians rally for the protection of natural remedies
Health Canada’s allopathic system is under fire as 153,000 Canadians demand protected access to natural and traditional medicines.
Thousands of Canadians have joined the call for greater protection of natural and traditional medicines under the proposed Charter of Health Freedom, as the Health Charter Tour organized by the Natural Health Product Protection Association (NHPPA) comes to a close.
For weeks, the tour has crisscrossed the country—meeting citizens, practitioners, and advocates who say Health Canada’s tightening of regulations threatens long-standing wellness practices and personal choice.
At a stop along the final leg of the journey in Cobourg, Ont., Shawn Buckley, president of NHPPA and the lawyer behind the Charter itself, reflected on the tour. Buckley shared the stories that underscore the growing public concern over health autonomy in Canada.
“What stands out most is how ordinary Canadians have been lining up to hold events. It’s all volunteer done,” Buckley said. He recounted cases like that of Karen Peters from Grand Prairie, diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and prescribed chemotherapy drugs for a year. After turning to a naturopathic doctor, she found a path to recovery using nutrition and natural supplements. “How many Canadians are being injected with chemotherapy drugs every week who have rheumatoid arthritis? One’s too many,” Buckley said.
The tour highlighted the widespread frustration with Health Canada’s approach to natural health products, particularly restrictions on information sharing. “It’s illegal for practitioners and manufacturers to share these stories. We have 100% censorship, and it’s to protect our confidence in our universal health care system, which by definition is the marketing arm for the chemical drug companies,” he explained.
Buckley emphasized that the Charter of Health Freedom aims to restore long-standing legal rights: “We’re just claiming our rights back and asking Parliament to pass this. It creates a legal obligation on a new ministry to actually protect and promote our right to access vital nutrients.” He noted that Canadians increasingly rely on supplements to maintain health as modern diets often provide limited nutrition and are increasingly affected by contaminants.
The tour’s momentum is evident in the numbers. Buckley and his team are preparing to deliver 153,000 paper petition signatures to MP Blaine Calkins in Ottawa, making it the third-largest paper petition in Canadian history. “This is history in the making. Citizens getting together drafting a health charter,” he said.
Looking ahead, Buckley said the goal is to mobilize citizens further. “We are not losing those bare minimum health rights that a thousand years of our common law says we have the right to. We need to stand up and basically stop having to fight just to be healthy.”
Buckley left a message of confidence as the tour concludes: “There’s this whole healing community out there that’s kept secret, and we’re trying to break it out. It’s time to give people hope.”
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COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2025-10-24 22:01:04 -0400What a blatant power grab this is. Health Canada is just the stooges for big pharma. People should be free to try natural remedies instead of being forced into the Soviet-style health system.
