I started in 1994, acting for Health Canada against an herbalist named Jim Strauss. Then I started my own firm, and I ended up acting for that herbalist, as Health Canada had convinced the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC to attack them. We were successful in that case, and then people started phoning me.
I've practised law now for 32 years. I'm working on my 33rd year. About half of my practice for those 33 years has been dealing with Health Canada when Health Canada charges natural health product companies under the Food and Drugs Act. I expect I have defended in court more natural health product companies that have been charged than all other Canadian lawyers combined. Of course, Health Canada usually doesn't charge. They just bully and send you letters. They seize your property without reporting it to court, and they have the media do public advisories to destroy your business and bully you that way.
I've run interference and guided companies through that. In those 32 years, I'm aware of two times that a company failed to recall when Health Canada asked them to recall, and I represented both of those companies. One of them was Truehope. A court acquitted them and thanked them for defying Health Canada and for not recalling, because there would have been more deaths. The court found as a fact that it caused deaths. The other one I can't name, as I don't have permission to name them, but Health Canada was recalling nattokinase. The problem was that a whole bunch of medical doctors, as well as other practitioners, were managing patients using nattokinase as a blood thinner.
When a client comes to me and says, “Health Canada is asking me to recall,” I have to ask them, “Will that cause harm?” Under the Criminal Code, you can't have a remedy out there and then withdraw it from the market and cause death or suffering, because you'll have committed, at the very least, criminal negligence causing death or bodily harm. Parliament has put that obligation on you, but a Health Canada employee can put a different obligation on you. Now you have competing obligations in a recall.
We hired a medical doctor who was a risk analysis expert, and they said, “No, stop shipping, but don't you dare do a recall. Immediately send posters to every single health food store in Canada, advising Canadians that they can no longer get nattokinase. Go to your medical practitioner. By the way, you can order it from the United States and import it perfectly fine,” so that Canadians could be protected. The problem with having a recall provision—and I know that's a thing here—is that, even for dangerous chemical drugs, Health Canada should not have the authority to recall. It should be supervised by court, because that's a medical decision.
Let's talk about a chemical. A chemical is approved for a certain condition. Doctors will be prescribing it for off-label use. Health Canada can't know what harm they may or may not be causing when they order a recall, but if you have a court supervise a recall and have a provision whereby doctors and patients can then go and get access, that's reasonable.
Anyway, I'm probably the most experienced person out there in dealing with Health Canada.