By Lucy-Claire Saunders

After protests and jeers from concerned citizens and media outlets, Ottawa has introduced sweeping amendments to a federal bill that many feared would take natural health products (NHPs) off the shelves and encroach on civil liberties.

On Monday, MP Gary Goodyear read off a list of changes to the House of Commons during the second reading of Bill-51, a bill that would alter the Food and Drug Act. The amendments, made in direct response to public concerns, address everything from the bill’s ambiguous language to police raids and seizures.

"We have listened to Canadians and we have acted. . . our good intentions to protect have also provoked concerns among retailers, manufacturers, complementary medicine practitioners and the public that Bill C-51 may actually curtail the availability of NHPs," Goodyear, MP for Cambridge, told the House.

"These changes will respond constructively to the concerns that we have heard. They will protect consumers, manufacturers, retailers, and practitioners in the NHP community."

In its original state, Bill C-51 would combine NHPs with drugs and other medical consumables under one umbrella category called, ‘therapeutic products.’ Instead of creating a second tier specifically for NHPs, Health Minister Tony Clement had planned to treat natural health products — including herbal remedies and supplements popular with Metro Vancouver’s Asian communities — as pharmaceutical drugs.

The Conservative government says that the Food and Drug Act is in desperate need of updating and the new bill may prevent cases like those reported in the South Asian Post, where two Indo-Canadians were diagnosed with heavy-metal poisoning after ingesting tainted herbal remedies.

But critics charged that the bill vastly increases federal powers of inspection and enforcement, and unjustly tramples on the constitutional rights of traders and consumers of ancient alternative health remedies. By treating NHPs as pharmaceutical drugs, many are convinced alternative medicine will be chased out of the market.

Ever since the bill was quietly passed through its first reading, the NHP community has rallied the public into a frenzy.

Images of mothers being whisked off to prison for giving their children eccanacia dominated online chat rooms. Protesters took to the streets from Ottawa to Vancouver while lawyers held up the Charter of Rights, defending the consumer’s right to choose.

Now the Conservative government is beginning to change its tune and has begun talking about specifics when the public demands greater clarity. If the House approves the Bill at second reading, the Standing Committee on Health will then have the opportunity to review the Bill, hear witnesses and consider amendments.

"Bill C-51 is very complex legislation," concluded MP Goodyear. "It constitutes the first comprehensive updating of the Food and Drugs Act in over half a century. Its very complexity requires that we be on guard against unintended consequences and that we be ready to clear up misunderstandings."