Interesting battle underway in Alberta courtroom over freedom of choice

GerryDaypray · 04-03-2006, 01:18 AM

From the Calgary Sun

http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnis...9/1510120.html

Wed, March 29, 2006

Health heroes fight bureaucratic attack
By LICIA CORBELLA

There's something wrong with this picture. Yesterday two heroes -- men worthy of the highest honours this country could bestow upon anyone -- faced a criminal charge for saving lives.

For the past three weeks, Tony Stephan and David Hardy have spent tens of thousands of dollars defending themselves against a technical, though criminal charge by Health Canada.

Their crime? Producing and selling a product -- Empowerplus, through their company Truehope Supplements -- that has been proven to cure people with bi-polar disorders.

In typical Canadian fashion -- instead of being lauded by our federal government for being innovators (and for many of their customers, saviours) they were hounded, persecuted and prosecuted by petty-minded bureaucrats for not having a DIN, drug identification number, for their product in 2003.

Yesterday, their lawyer, Shawn Buckley, wrapped up the "defence of necessity" and today, in Calgary provincial courtroom 413, Judge Gerald Meagher will hear closing arguments.

During the past three weeks Judge Meagher, along with a courtroom filled with users and believers in Empowerplus -- some from as far away as Nova Scotia -- have heard the remarkable way this product was developed.

Meagher even heard from a Harvard professor and renowned psychiatrist, who prescribes this nutritional supplement to many of his severely psychotic patients -- with marvellous results.

Yesterday, Hardy, a former high school science teacher who went on to establish and run an agricultural feed additives business in Alberta, described how Empowerplus was born.

Hardy knew of the mental health issues plaguing Stephan's family. Stephan's first wife, Debora, committed suicide in 1994 and two of their 10 children, Joseph, now 25 and married with his first child on the way; and Autumn, now 33, also happily married with children, were severely psychotic and suicidal.

"Joseph was unable to attend school, he was taking 900 milligrams of lithium a day.

Autumn was hospitalized and a Calgary psychiatrist said there was no cure for either of them," recalls Stephan. "We were desperate."

Hardy told Stephan about a combination of vitamins and minerals he used to calm hogs who suffered from ear-and-tail-biting syndrome.

The men came up with a combination of more than 30 ingredients, including calcium, iron, zinc and vitamins, which they adapted for human use and then tried first on Jo-seph and then Autumn with "miraculous" results. "Within 30 days they had no symptoms and never have again," said Stephan. That was 10 years ago.

So pleasantly shocked were they by the positive effect this supplement had, they took their findings to Dr. Brian Kolb, then a University of Lethbridge neurologist, who tested the supplement on four people and got the same encouraging results.

Then Dr. Bonnie Kaplan, a researcher at the University of Calgary, who has testified at this trial, started conducting double-blind studies into Truehope, with "very promising results".

But then Health Canada swooped in, had the RCMP raid the Truehope call centre in Raymond, Alta., stopped shipments of the nutritional supplement -- which are manufactured in the U.S. -- from entering Canada, and closed down the U of C study. In all, 3,000 Truehope users were left desperate.

Court heard from Ron Lajuenesse, past- executive director for the Canadian Mental Health Association, that at least two people committed suicide as a result and others were forced to smuggle the supplement into Canada to prevent relapsing.

Since then, Health Canada has dropped five of the six charges. The remaining one would likely net Stephan and Hardy a $300 fine. Yet they fight on because had they followed the law and shut down their business they know lives would have been ruined as a result.

"The people who come to us are desperate," Hardy told the court. "It's as if they're in a burning building. Their lives are at stake.... We didn't feel that we could morally back out and put these people back in the fire and let them die."

And so here they are defending themselves for saving lives. Regardless of the outcome in this case, even if they're declared criminals, someone ought to give these guys a medal.

GerryDaypray · 04-03-2006, 01:22 AM

Next day's follow up from Calgary Sun

http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnis...0/1511709.html

Thu, March 30, 2006

Health Canada suit ignored well-being
By LICIA CORBELLA

Canadians could be forgiven for assuming that the role of Health Canada is to do what its name suggests -- that is to protect the health of Canadians.

But yesterday, and for the past three weeks, a Calgary court heard chilling testimony and evidence of how Health Canada cared not one bit about the possible deaths or hospitalizations of Canadians due to its actions, and how it "abused the process" by "blindly" following soon-to-be outdated regulations to prosecute the makers of a nutritional supplement that has helped thousands of mentally ill people lead normal lives.

Yesterday, final submissions were made before Alberta Provincial Court Judge Gerald Meagher in the case of Health Canada criminally prosecuting Truehope Nutritional Support for not having a Drug Identification Number (DIN) for its nutritional supplement called Empowerplus, which is described as a "miracle" vitamin and mineral product by its more than 10,000 users who suffer from bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other serious mental health ailments.

Defence attorney Shawn Buckley first recapped how the makers of Empowerplus jumped through numerous hoops trying "every reasonable means" to comply with a regulation that did not fit the nutritional supplement industry.

In fact, Health Canada officials, testified that fully 90% of all so called "natural health products" did not comply with Health Canada regulations requiring a DIN number, not because they "thumbed their noses" at the regulations, but because compliance was impossible.

That's why the law was changed on Jan. 1, 2004, to set up new regulations for natural health products. Nevertheless, Health Canada later that year retroactively charged Truehope with not having a DIN in 2003, even though that law no longer applied, a clear example of abuse of process, argued Buckley.

Buckley also gave numerous examples of Health Canada officials attempting to "sabotage" Truehope's attempts to comply in other ways. He also said it was "highly suspicious" that Health Canada tried to hide information from the court, saying it was "undiscoverable" but when the judge ordered the material to be sent, hundreds of pages of the information in question was faxed to the court within the hour.

"It's alarming to me that Health Canada would proceed knowing that their actions would cause deaths and hospitalizations. This is the kind of bureaucratic behaviour that would shock the community's sense of fair play and decency," said Buckley, particularly since the regulations would soon be changed and the minister of health at the time, Pierre Pettigrew, had made provisions to let the sale of Empowerplus to go on.

Health Canada charged the company anyway and seized the product at the border.

Buckley's strongest argument came when he urged the court to imagine what would have happened if Tony Stephan and David Hardy, the founders of the company and product, had complied with Health Canada's demand to stop providing the product.

Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Charles Popper testified that had the product not been made available there would "be suicides, hospitalizations, assaults and possible incarcerations."

"Let's say the defendants had stopped selling this product because of Health Canada and that there were deaths and there were hospitalizations," said Buckley.

Stephan and Hardy would likely be before the courts on the much more serious charges of criminal negligence causing death, said Buckley, because the evidence is immense that suicides would occur if people didn't have access to the product.

"There's not a jury in Canada that would accept not having a DIN as an excuse for causing death and bodily harm. If that's the case, then why would these proceedings go ahead?" asked Buckley, before a courtroom packed with dozens of users of the product who credit it with saving their lives.

Buckley argued that if Health Canada had evidence that a product was causing harm, then singling out Empowerplus would make sense. But the very opposite is true. Health Canada officials, specifically Sandra Jarvis and Miles Brosseau, had both anecdotal and scientific evidence that proved that withdrawing the product was harmful -- even deadly.

Your tax dollars at work, folks.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GerryDaypray · 04-03-2006, 01:23 AM

More reading on the subject

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp..._commences.htm

sherijo · 04-03-2006, 01:54 AM

I looked up this supplement Empower+ and i found some interesting info on severe withdrawal.. more stuff that will back up the nutrient deficient ideas..

Long read.. but will put you at ease from your withdrawal a little..

http://www.truehope.com/docs/Evaluat...iatricCare.htm

Delynbetter · 04-03-2006, 07:32 AM

I was going to start by saying, "Please don't think I'm stupid," but I have to admit I am stupid on this. I am so totally embarassed to be asking this question...

How do you die from bipolarism? I am NOT denying the disease, but I have a huge lack of education on it. I've been under the assumption that bipolarism was huge shifts in emotions and I can see where it could lead to something like Alzheimer's or such. Suicide is an obvious cause of death, but it seems to be too obvious. I'm probably reading too much into it. (I'll go read that last link.)

Delynbetter · 04-03-2006, 07:34 AM

Quote:

Of great concern is the growing evidence that many psychiatric medications raise the risk of cancer, addiction, and suicide. For instance, a woman taking certain psychiatric medications more than doubles her risk of ovarian cancer. Indeed, the use of one antidepressant (Paxil) is a greater risk factor for cancer than is smoking.

Interesting in the light of the "AD's help prevent colorectal cancer" crap.

Quote:

Children: Almost 21% of U.S. children aged 9 to 17 years had a diagnosable mental disorder or addictive disorder associated with at least minimum impairment.

Only 21% these days? This must have been before Teen Screen.

rdjanis · 04-03-2006, 07:39 AM

Delyn many people in withdrawal, or people labeled are self harming and/or suicidal have found this stuff very helpful in easing their symptoms. I don't think it is meant they will die from bipolarism, but by self harm caused by the severe depressions of their diagnosis. Although in my view, most cases of bipolarism are side effects of medications.

Delynbetter · 04-03-2006, 07:42 AM

I didn't read far enough into that 3rd link. The man who started True Hope lost his wife to suicide and his two children have been diagnosed as bipolar also. The initial statement in the paragraph before it just threw me for a loop.

See, I'm stupid - but I plead the "Monday".

Wow. There are a lot a good resources in Sheri's link. May my education continue!

04-03-2006, 01:18 AM	#1
GerryDaypray Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: London, Ontario Posts: 327	Interesting battle underway in Alberta courtroom over freedom of choice From the Calgary Sun http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnis...9/1510120.html Wed, March 29, 2006 Health heroes fight bureaucratic attack By LICIA CORBELLA There's something wrong with this picture. Yesterday two heroes -- men worthy of the highest honours this country could bestow upon anyone -- faced a criminal charge for saving lives. For the past three weeks, Tony Stephan and David Hardy have spent tens of thousands of dollars defending themselves against a technical, though criminal charge by Health Canada. Their crime? Producing and selling a product -- Empowerplus, through their company Truehope Supplements -- that has been proven to cure people with bi-polar disorders. In typical Canadian fashion -- instead of being lauded by our federal government for being innovators (and for many of their customers, saviours) they were hounded, persecuted and prosecuted by petty-minded bureaucrats for not having a DIN, drug identification number, for their product in 2003. Yesterday, their lawyer, Shawn Buckley, wrapped up the "defence of necessity" and today, in Calgary provincial courtroom 413, Judge Gerald Meagher will hear closing arguments. During the past three weeks Judge Meagher, along with a courtroom filled with users and believers in Empowerplus -- some from as far away as Nova Scotia -- have heard the remarkable way this product was developed. Meagher even heard from a Harvard professor and renowned psychiatrist, who prescribes this nutritional supplement to many of his severely psychotic patients -- with marvellous results. Yesterday, Hardy, a former high school science teacher who went on to establish and run an agricultural feed additives business in Alberta, described how Empowerplus was born. Hardy knew of the mental health issues plaguing Stephan's family. Stephan's first wife, Debora, committed suicide in 1994 and two of their 10 children, Joseph, now 25 and married with his first child on the way; and Autumn, now 33, also happily married with children, were severely psychotic and suicidal. "Joseph was unable to attend school, he was taking 900 milligrams of lithium a day. Autumn was hospitalized and a Calgary psychiatrist said there was no cure for either of them," recalls Stephan. "We were desperate." Hardy told Stephan about a combination of vitamins and minerals he used to calm hogs who suffered from ear-and-tail-biting syndrome. The men came up with a combination of more than 30 ingredients, including calcium, iron, zinc and vitamins, which they adapted for human use and then tried first on Jo-seph and then Autumn with "miraculous" results. "Within 30 days they had no symptoms and never have again," said Stephan. That was 10 years ago. So pleasantly shocked were they by the positive effect this supplement had, they took their findings to Dr. Brian Kolb, then a University of Lethbridge neurologist, who tested the supplement on four people and got the same encouraging results. Then Dr. Bonnie Kaplan, a researcher at the University of Calgary, who has testified at this trial, started conducting double-blind studies into Truehope, with "very promising results". But then Health Canada swooped in, had the RCMP raid the Truehope call centre in Raymond, Alta., stopped shipments of the nutritional supplement -- which are manufactured in the U.S. -- from entering Canada, and closed down the U of C study. In all, 3,000 Truehope users were left desperate. Court heard from Ron Lajuenesse, past- executive director for the Canadian Mental Health Association, that at least two people committed suicide as a result and others were forced to smuggle the supplement into Canada to prevent relapsing. Since then, Health Canada has dropped five of the six charges. The remaining one would likely net Stephan and Hardy a $300 fine. Yet they fight on because had they followed the law and shut down their business they know lives would have been ruined as a result. "The people who come to us are desperate," Hardy told the court. "It's as if they're in a burning building. Their lives are at stake.... We didn't feel that we could morally back out and put these people back in the fire and let them die." And so here they are defending themselves for saving lives. Regardless of the outcome in this case, even if they're declared criminals, someone ought to give these guys a medal.

04-03-2006, 01:22 AM	#2
GerryDaypray Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: London, Ontario Posts: 327	Re: Interesting battle underway in Alberta courtroom over freedom of choice Next day's follow up from Calgary Sun http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnis...0/1511709.html Thu, March 30, 2006 Health Canada suit ignored well-being By LICIA CORBELLA Canadians could be forgiven for assuming that the role of Health Canada is to do what its name suggests -- that is to protect the health of Canadians. But yesterday, and for the past three weeks, a Calgary court heard chilling testimony and evidence of how Health Canada cared not one bit about the possible deaths or hospitalizations of Canadians due to its actions, and how it "abused the process" by "blindly" following soon-to-be outdated regulations to prosecute the makers of a nutritional supplement that has helped thousands of mentally ill people lead normal lives. Yesterday, final submissions were made before Alberta Provincial Court Judge Gerald Meagher in the case of Health Canada criminally prosecuting Truehope Nutritional Support for not having a Drug Identification Number (DIN) for its nutritional supplement called Empowerplus, which is described as a "miracle" vitamin and mineral product by its more than 10,000 users who suffer from bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other serious mental health ailments. Defence attorney Shawn Buckley first recapped how the makers of Empowerplus jumped through numerous hoops trying "every reasonable means" to comply with a regulation that did not fit the nutritional supplement industry. In fact, Health Canada officials, testified that fully 90% of all so called "natural health products" did not comply with Health Canada regulations requiring a DIN number, not because they "thumbed their noses" at the regulations, but because compliance was impossible. That's why the law was changed on Jan. 1, 2004, to set up new regulations for natural health products. Nevertheless, Health Canada later that year retroactively charged Truehope with not having a DIN in 2003, even though that law no longer applied, a clear example of abuse of process, argued Buckley. Buckley also gave numerous examples of Health Canada officials attempting to "sabotage" Truehope's attempts to comply in other ways. He also said it was "highly suspicious" that Health Canada tried to hide information from the court, saying it was "undiscoverable" but when the judge ordered the material to be sent, hundreds of pages of the information in question was faxed to the court within the hour. "It's alarming to me that Health Canada would proceed knowing that their actions would cause deaths and hospitalizations. This is the kind of bureaucratic behaviour that would shock the community's sense of fair play and decency," said Buckley, particularly since the regulations would soon be changed and the minister of health at the time, Pierre Pettigrew, had made provisions to let the sale of Empowerplus to go on. Health Canada charged the company anyway and seized the product at the border. Buckley's strongest argument came when he urged the court to imagine what would have happened if Tony Stephan and David Hardy, the founders of the company and product, had complied with Health Canada's demand to stop providing the product. Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Charles Popper testified that had the product not been made available there would "be suicides, hospitalizations, assaults and possible incarcerations." "Let's say the defendants had stopped selling this product because of Health Canada and that there were deaths and there were hospitalizations," said Buckley. Stephan and Hardy would likely be before the courts on the much more serious charges of criminal negligence causing death, said Buckley, because the evidence is immense that suicides would occur if people didn't have access to the product. "There's not a jury in Canada that would accept not having a DIN as an excuse for causing death and bodily harm. If that's the case, then why would these proceedings go ahead?" asked Buckley, before a courtroom packed with dozens of users of the product who credit it with saving their lives. Buckley argued that if Health Canada had evidence that a product was causing harm, then singling out Empowerplus would make sense. But the very opposite is true. Health Canada officials, specifically Sandra Jarvis and Miles Brosseau, had both anecdotal and scientific evidence that proved that withdrawing the product was harmful -- even deadly. Your tax dollars at work, folks. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

04-03-2006, 01:23 AM	#3
GerryDaypray Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: London, Ontario Posts: 327	Re: Interesting battle underway in Alberta courtroom over freedom of choice More reading on the subject http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp..._commences.htm

04-03-2006, 01:54 AM	#4
sherijo Banned Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: chicago, illinois Posts: 1,357	Re: Interesting battle underway in Alberta courtroom over freedom of choice I looked up this supplement Empower+ and i found some interesting info on severe withdrawal.. more stuff that will back up the nutrient deficient ideas.. Long read.. but will put you at ease from your withdrawal a little.. http://www.truehope.com/docs/Evaluat...iatricCare.htm

04-03-2006, 07:32 AM	#5
Delynbetter Join Date: May 2005 Location: Texas Posts: 10,769	Re: Interesting battle underway in Alberta courtroom over freedom of choice I was going to start by saying, "Please don't think I'm stupid," but I have to admit I am stupid on this. I am so totally embarassed to be asking this question... How do you die from bipolarism? I am NOT denying the disease, but I have a huge lack of education on it. I've been under the assumption that bipolarism was huge shifts in emotions and I can see where it could lead to something like Alzheimer's or such. Suicide is an obvious cause of death, but it seems to be too obvious. I'm probably reading too much into it. (I'll go read that last link.)

04-03-2006, 07:39 AM	#7
rdjanis "has a lavender scented keyboard" Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Ontario Posts: 22,214	Re: Interesting battle underway in Alberta courtroom over freedom of choice Delyn many people in withdrawal, or people labeled are self harming and/or suicidal have found this stuff very helpful in easing their symptoms. I don't think it is meant they will die from bipolarism, but by self harm caused by the severe depressions of their diagnosis. Although in my view, most cases of bipolarism are side effects of medications. __________________ Rita

04-03-2006, 07:42 AM	#8
Delynbetter Join Date: May 2005 Location: Texas Posts: 10,769	Re: Interesting battle underway in Alberta courtroom over freedom of choice I didn't read far enough into that 3rd link. The man who started True Hope lost his wife to suicide and his two children have been diagnosed as bipolar also. The initial statement in the paragraph before it just threw me for a loop. See, I'm stupid - but I plead the "Monday". Wow. There are a lot a good resources in Sheri's link. May my education continue!

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