Give This Man a Cape

A Kamloops lawyer crusades for Canada's health freedom.

by Tamara Letkeman

Shawn Buckley climbs the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery to the sound of ardent applause, whoops, and whistles. With his dark good looks (think Christian Bale or George Clooney), he could be mistaken for a celebrity who’s hit town to hold court with his fans. And in a way, he is.

It’s Sept. 10, and about 50 people have rallied under the blazing sun to hear the Kamloops lawyer speak. Many hold placards, some of which face Shawn like soldiers standing smartly to attention, others of which are deliberately turned backwards to entice passersby to join the tight circle that’s formed on Robson Street. “Sign the Petition Here,” the signs urge. “Support the Canadian Charter of Health Freedom.”

Shawn Buckley has emerged as Canada’s all-star for natural health products (NHPs), a superhero who’s crusading for our right to have access to herbal remedies, vitamins, and minerals. Sept. 10 is a historic day because the Natural Health Product Protection Association (NHPPA), a group Shawn formed to protect access to natural health products and dietary supplements, has released its newly inked Charter of Health Freedom. This is landmark legislation that would allow the feds to safely regulate natural and traditional medicines while guaranteeing our access to them.

“It’s designed to give the government the authority they need to regulate things that are actually dangerous,” Shawn, who wrote the charter, explains. “But they cannot thwart our opportunity to choose how we’re going to treat ourselves in a health crisis.”

The goal: to collect three million signatures across the country in support of the charter and have it drafted into law.

Health Canada began regulating natural health products on Jan. 1, 2004. Shawn, who has successfully defended a number of NHP companies against Health Canada in court, noticed many manufacturers’ licence applications were failing. “It became absolutely crystal clear to me the industry was being headed to disaster. And when I say disaster I mean the majority of natural health products being forced off the market.” (To wit, it’s estimated that some 20,000 products have already been taken off the shelves.)

Canadians are serious about their health supplements. According to a 2005 survey by Health Canada, more than 70 per cent of us have used a natural health product at some point. The number climbs to nearly 80 per cent for British Columbians—the highest in the country.

The Charter of Health Freedom may well place Shawn squarely in the history books. But it was a far different bill that originally pulled him into the limelight. Last April, while he was quietly working on the charter, a copy of the newly released Bill C-51 crossed his desk. A wildly controversial piece of legislation that proposed to tighten labelling and licensing requirements for makers of natural health products, Bill C-51 would also grant Health Canada the unprecedented power to seize the property of manufacturers, practitioners, and retailers in the industry without a warrant and without reporting the seizure to a court.

“And the person who decides whether you are guilty or innocent is the minister [of health],” Shawn laments. “And guess who gets to keep any seized property if you’re guilty. The minister. I have a problem with that.”

Since Bill C-51’s introduction seven months ago, Shawn, like a tenacious bulldog, has never let loose of this unsettling legislation.

At least 500 people came to hear Shawn’s first talk on Bill C-51 June 2, in Vancouver. He travelled around B.C., Manitoba, and Ontario to give lectures on the bill’s ramifications. Meanwhile, newspapers and radio stations from across the country came a-calling. “The media interviews, I couldn’t even count them,” he says.

With the announcement of the federal election last month, Bill C-51 died on the table. But Shawn isn’t mollified. “Bill C-51 is gone now, but what will prevent the government from just reintroducing it after the election? Nothing.”

Shawn’s Epiphany

Though these days Shawn swallows a number of natural supplements, including hemp oil, to maintain his stout good health, he didn’t always believe in the healing powers of Mother Earth.

“I just assumed that the whole thing was snake oil,” he confesses. “I grew up in a family where if we had a medical problem, we went to the doctor.”

Shawn’s first contact with the natural health products industry came in the mid-’90s when he represented Health Canada against a Kamloops herbalist, Jim Strauss, maker of Strauss Heart Drops. A shipment of herbs that Strauss had ordered from the United States got seized by Health Canada at the border. Strauss was suing for damages.

Shawn had the case thrown out due to a procedural error, and Strauss lost his herbs. But that didn’t stop him from hiring Shawn to defend him when the province later went after him for practising medicine without a license.

“He was clearly guilty,” Shawn recalls, adding that he considered Strauss a “flake.” Then it dawned on him that the law Strauss was being prosecuted under contradicted the Charter of Rights and Freedoms: while the legislation in question prohibits people from making untruthful claims, the Charter grants us freedom of expression.

Shawn served the Crown notice that he would attempt to have the law declared unconstitutional. The province promptly dropped the charges. “We consider that to be a tremendous win when they have to back down,” he says.

Peter Helgason, special projects manager of Strauss Herb Company, was thrilled at how Shawn handled the case. “I was very pleased that the Crown walked away after [making] a 73-count criminal charge. I have no reservations whatsoever recommending Shawn’s legal services to other people who are in conflict.”

While preparing Strauss’s case, Shawn had an epiphany. “When I defended Jim, my eyes started to open.” Strauss had given him boxes of letters containing glowing testimonials from patients who’d taken his heart drops. “There were hundreds of credible people who were literally at death’s door, and they all got well and went back to work.”

The letters, and subsequent interviews with many who wrote them (Shawn ended up calling five witnesses to the stand—an unusually high number), made a powerful impression. “Now, if I get sick, my last resort is taking a pharmaceutical pill.”

The same goes for Shawn’s wife, Barbara, and their children, Alex, 16, Elycia, 13, and Zachary, 10. But Shawn admits that he, who’s absolutely pro-natural remedies, and Barbara, a former nurse, sometimes clash. “I mean, there’s conflict over simple things like whether or not the kids should get Tylenol if they have a cold.”

When asked how these conflicts are resolved, Shawn laughs. “Well, usually how things are resolved in a marriage—the woman wins.”

Despite the utter lack of telltale signs that his labours are wearing on him—he’s got an enviable tan and no circles under his eyes—Shawn says the stress of long work hours and criss-crossing the country is mounting. “It can’t go on indefinitely. The plan was to get the NHPPA up and running and phase out my law practice and phase in to the NHPPA. But then Bill C-51 came along.”

Yet the Kamloops lawyer-turned-crusader for natural health products remains tough, resolute, and unwavering in his commitment. And his fans love him for it.

“I don’t think you can get much better than Shawn,” affirms Lorna Hancock, director of the Health Action Network Society, the group that organized the Sept. 10 rally. “You know, he’s a real champion. He sees what’s right, and he sees what’s wrong. He’s not there to back down.”

Tamara Letkeman is SharedVISION’s editor. Though the Chinese herbs she’s taking taste terrible, she demands the right to continue forcing them down.

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