When is the government of Canada going to take action against the newspapers and the companies who market this junk on unsuspecting consumers? One of the offices of the Health Protection Branch is at 4900 Yonge St. a few yards away from the building that has housed all these scam artists for years. We demand a complete investigation why the government has failed to take action against any of these companies. The diet and weight loss scam industry is worth billions in North America, and much of it comes from Canada. In other words our country is a safe-haven for hundreds of scam artists who use the internet and advertise freely in newspapers without fear of investigation by our governement. Someone right now stands to make millions operating from the safety of Toronto, right under the noses of Health Canada and the Ontario government consumer protection branch. But, it doesn't stop there. The advertisement placed with the Calgary Herald again ends its Canadian pipeline somewhere in Montreal. Enough said? This ad takes the prize for the worst weight loss and diet ad I have ever seen in Canada. But, will that stop them from running them in other papers? I don't think so. Chances are, Conrad Black's other papers has already run this or similar ads even as we do this report. We appeal to the ASC, the government, both Provincial and Federal to take control of the fraud artists that are preying on the public. Right now, Canada is the laughing stock of the world when it comes to the control of health quackery. We will continue to do everything possible to educate the Canadian public about scam artists and rogue health care providers on our web sites. But, it seems clear from where I sit, that our governments just doesn't care about false advertising, health scams and the dangerous products that come into our country. They also don't care about mailorder scams that originate here, but are often part of an underground cash-filled pipeline to some island in the Lesser Antilles. The world of health fraud on the internet includes dozens of other stories, some of them are very serious and involve doctors who are try to ship quack cancer drugs out of Canada into the U.S. That's another story, one that we will cover later on. CANADA FIGHTS BACK WITH THE
NATURAL HEALTH PRODUCTS DIRECTORATE What did the government do about diet and health fraud? Late last year, they decided to form a new office, a spin-off of Health Canada. They appointed a dozen or so people to a transition team, the overwhelming majority supposedly represented the cream of the crop who work in companies that supply Canada with vitamins, herbs, and other alternative health products. These are the very people who can't prove that their products work, who can't prove that there products are safe, and yet the government appoints them to a transition team to set up standards in the natural and herbal product industry. While the product featured in this article is of unknown origin, it is a prime example of what the government has failed to do.
The Natural Health Products Directorate is one of the finest examples of the government putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop.
Don't you think that Health Canada should be getting together with the Competition Bureau and the RCMP to do away with scam artists before they spend one penny of the $7 million earmarked to set up some glitzy office with dozens of bureaucrats that preside over rows and rows of computer terminals, and who subscribe to dozens of newspaper to see what's really being sold. Why hasn't Health Canada or the police visited Mail Boxes Etc. and pressed charges against those other scam artists? The ONHP will be toothless in this cavity filled world of diet and health monsters. In the meantime, how much money has Gero Vita, Aebion, and now Labo Genova made by defrauding the public with false claims and potentially harmful products. I can tell you right now, that they've made a hell of a lot more than $7 million.
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