Professor Bruce Pardy is a professor of law at Queen’s University, the executive director of Rights Probe, and a leading voice on rights and the rule of law in Canada. With decades of experience teaching and writing about constitutional and administrative law, Pardy brings sharp insight into how government authority operates—and overreaches—when it comes to personal health decisions. In this interview, he explores the legal and philosophical foundations of Health Canada’s authority and why it represents not protection but control.

Bruce explains that Canada’s Food and Drugs Act defines “drug” so broadly that everything used for a therapeutic purpose—whether synthetic pharmaceuticals or ginger tea—is regulated as a drug. This puts Health Canada in the role of gatekeeper, where only patented chemical drugs are systematically approved. Pardy argues that this is not about science or outcomes but about authority: whatever Health Canada decides is automatically deemed to be in the public interest, regardless of whether it helps or harms individuals. He draws parallels to slavery, where someone else controlled your body, noting that Canadians have ceded similar authority to bureaucrats. He also exposes how courts insulate Health Canada from accountability, allowing it to make decisions that harm—even kill—without legal remedy for victims. He warns that regulatory capture and cost-recovery structures have turned Health Canada into a client-serving body for pharmaceutical companies, creating a cartel that excludes natural health alternatives. His call is unambiguous: sovereignty over one’s body must be restored, and the Charter of Health Freedom is a crucial step toward reclaiming the right to decide how we prevent and treat illness.