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There are two types of offences under the Act: indictable offences and summary
conviction offences. Indictable offences are considered more serious than
summary conviction offences.
The current penalties are:
for summary conviction offences a fine of up to $500 and/or imprisonment
of up to 3 months for a first offence, and a fine of up to $1,000 and/or up to
6 months incarceration for subsequent offences, and
for indictable offences a fine of up to $5,000 and/or imprisonment for up to
3 years.
The new penalties are:
for summary conviction offences a fine of up to $250,000 and/or
imprisonment of up to 6 months for a first offence, and a fine of up to
$500,000 and/or up to 18 months of incarceration for subsequent offences,
and
For indictable offences a fine of up to $5,000,000 and/or imprisonment of
up to 2 years.
This is not a doubling or tripling of fines. In the case of indictable offences the
fine is increased by a multiple of 1000 times. In the case of summary conviction
offences the fine is increased by a multiple of 500 times.
This raises the question as to why it is necessary to raise the primary penalty
by multiples of 500 and 1000. This is probably unprecedented in Canadian
history.
Please note that in all of my years defending companies in Court, I have never
seen Health Canada charge only one offence. In one case there were 73
charges. Under ten would be an exception. So when considering whether a
company could survive sentencing, do not calculate a single fine for a single
offence. Rather assume multiple fines for multiple offences.
These are penalties that few manufacturers or natural health practitioners could
survive. Small and medium manufacturers along with natural health
practitioners now face bankruptcy for violations of the Act or Regulations.
Directors and officers of corporations are now also personally responsible for
violations of the Act and Regulations and so are also facing personal
bankruptcy if there is any violation of the Act or Regulations.
Need for input
This draft document is admittedly only a cursory consideration of Bill C-51.
However, because the Bill presents significant changes that may be extremely
damaging to the NHP industry, we felt that it was necessary to prepare an initial
discussion document to get the various stakeholders aware of the issues presented
by the Bill.
It is essential that stakeholders and stakeholder groups take the time to examine
Bill C-51 and to draw their own conclusions.
Bill C-51 Will:
Allow Government agents to:
-Enter private property without a warrant Section 23 (4)
-Confiscate your property at their discretion, at your cost Section 23.3 a
-Dispose of your property at their discretion, at your cost Section 23.3 c
-Seize your bank accounts without a warrant Section 23 (2) (d)
-Charge you for shipping and storage of your property Section 23.3a-b
-Store your property Indefinitely without paying you for damages Section 23 (2) (d)
-Levy fines of up to $5,000,000.00 / 2 years in jail per offence. Section 31.1
Introduce new legislation that will:
-Allow laws to be created in Canada, behind closed doors, with the assistance of foreign governments, industrial and trade organizations Section 30.7
-Allow "Crack house style" of enforcement on natural health providers Section 23.1
-Allow enforcement to be considered on more than 70% of Canadians who use NHP's Health Canada Reference
-Allow the minister, based on opinion, to shut down research without any scientific reason or evidence of risk or harm Section 18.5
-Allow the minister, based on opinion, to allow or disallow market authorizations for Natural Health Products Section 18.7 (1)
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