TOTAL HEALTH 2014 WAS THE VENUE FOR THE CHARTER PETITION TO TOP 93,000 SIGNATURES.
Thanks to the Total Health management team, who got so excited about this with us that they tweeted the achievement with a photo.
NHPPA’s booth was busy all weekend, with record numbers of new subscribers signing up for our E-Blasts. We are very thankful to the Total Health management team for, again, placing us at a corner booth in a high traffic area. We were on everyone’s way into the show and on their way out.
As usual, our T-shirts sparked some great conversations. Whenever someone asked us, “Why do you want to ban lightning?” they were shocked to know that a Canadian is 17 times more likely to get struck by lightning than harmed by a natural health product. Taken from Ron Law’s analysis with the Government of Canada’s own statistics.
Julia Rickert, NHPPA’s National Campaign Director and Executive Co-ordinator with Carolyn Steele, Information Officer and Writer, stayed fully occupied guiding our visitors the information packs that best suited their needs.
Many people collected our new print materials and contributed a few dollars towards the cost of printing.
The launch of our MP Rebuttal Package (Step 2 of the Charter to 308 MP Campaign) was extremely popular. Every time someone asked us, “What can I do?” we gave them a package to send to their MP. We know writing to MPs is a difficult and time-consuming task. We have streamlined it as much as possible so that everyone can take part. Melody Byblow, a Toronto area Registered Holistic Nutritionist and NHPPA’s newest core team member, made the MP Rebuttal Package corner of the booth her department!
Shawn Buckley, president of the NHPPA, was on hand between appointments, interviews and lectures to speak with our visitors. He had a line-up most of the time he was in sight.
Shawn values his interaction with the people we are working for. This is when he learns what is on your mind. Everyone is important to Shawn and he will engage for as long as his busy schedule allows. He lets us know that, in everyone that stops to tell him a story, he finds more reasons to continue the work.
Shawn’s information is often surprising. This is not the first time people have taken away proof of the things he tells them, so they can convince and educate their networks.
And the work of listening and explaining, advising and learning just kept on going. Melody took the time to chat in-depth with everyone who wanted to learn about our latest tools.
The record-breaking petition figures encouraged more and more people to sign. It takes time to build momentum but now the Charter of Health Freedom seems unstoppable.
We caught up with several of NHPPA’s friends and fellow travellers on the path to freedom. Shawn will be defending Michael Schmidt shortly in the conspiracy case regarding the disappearance of Montana Jones’ rare sheep. You can follow their progress, and that of the on-going raw milk saga, at The Bovine.
We also met up with Dee Nicholson, a Health Freedom Activist who works on behalf of a number of freedom organizations. She speaks and writes on international issues such as CODEX and CETA, having studied the way governments are drafting legislation to leave door open for external trade agreements which threaten their sovereignty.
Jeffery Smith, international best selling author and GMO expert from the Institute of Responsible Technology was speaking at the show and taking part in a panel discussion on eating Your Way to Health. He and Shawn found time in their schedules to compare notes on their advocacy work.
Some of our visitors evaded the camera. Four Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) friends, practitioners and representatives of the Federation of Ontario TCM Associations, who are fighting their own regulations battle, stopped in to discuss strategy with Shawn.
Rick DeSylva spent Saturday evening with us. Rick is one of our mentors and the driving force behind an independent Natural Health Product International Meeting with scientific and legal minds coming together from around the world.
And of course, Genevieve Eliany, Associate Lawyer at Buckley & Company. She could not be with us this year and we missed her!
Shawn’s keynote lecture for 2014 covered a lot of ground. In moving out of the eye of the hurricane and into the storm he said, “The store shelves are full, but are things truly rosy? If you depend on a product that is no longer available, or if you depend on a product that was more effective before Health Canada required a formulation change, then things are not rosy.”
He also spoke about the Trojan Horse of Bill C-17. “The danger is that the way Bill C-17 is written may create a Trojan horse that permits the Bill’s provisions to be applied to NHPs.”
Finally, Shawn covered the possible consequences of the secret trade agreement with Europe, CETA. “We do not know if CETA will include NHPs, but if it does we may be looking back at the NHP Regulations as the ‘good old days’.”
NHPPA’S 2014 booth was manned Shawn Buckley, Julia Rickert, Carolyn Steele and Melody Byblow.
Shawn Buckley’s 2014 Keynote Lecture
