Canadian naturopaths fight regulatory bill

OTTAWA, May 21 (UPI) -- Naturopaths are speaking out against a bill moving through the Canadian Parliament that would regulate their activities for the first time.

Bill C-51 would make the first changes to the Food and Drugs Act in more than 50 years, and various naturopaths are opposed to lumping natural health products in with pharmaceuticals, the Toronto Star reported Wednesday.

"Basically, this is unbelievable granting of police state powers to essentially untrained field staff, inspectors at Health Canada, who are making life-and-death decisions based on misguided policy," said Peter Helgason, vice president of political affairs for the Natural Health Products Protection Association.

Tony Clement, the federal health minister who sponsored the legislation, said no one industry would be excluded in the interest of consumer safety, the Star said.

"For the first time, we are going to have a tracking system for food, from the farm to the fork," Clement said. "So if there is bad food out there, we can find out which farm it came from."