Alternative medicinal practitioners are holding their breath over a proposed bill that would prevent them from practicing.
According to the co-founder of True Hope, a non-profit mental-health support group, Bill C-51 would strip away the rights and livelihood of alternative medicine practitioners.
“The absolute bottom line is they are preventing holistic medical practitioners from practicing. It’s taking away our rights,” Anthony Stephan told Metro.
“It’s causing quite the uproar across Canada. It gives government too much control.”
The government would remove 70 per cent of natural health products from store shelves and others would require prescriptions, he added.
Calgary registered natural medicine practitioner Bettina Fabian just finished school a few months ago and planned to start a business from her home.
“Half the business is selling the products. I’m able to make suggestions on what people can take to get better, but now they are trying to take that away,” she told Metro.
She said the bill would favour the higher-risk medicines from pharmaceutical companies while stripping away research and development of safe alternatives.
Petitioners against the bill are taking to the steps of the Calgary Court Centre at 635 – 8 Ave SW today at 11:45 a.m.
