Manitoba Passed Health Freedom Legislation
Striaghtgoods June 2005 issue

By Helke Ferrie

On June 16th, 2005 , the Province of Manitoba adopted the Health Freedom Bill known as the Alaska Clause in the USA , where it was first passed, or the Kwinter Amendment in Ontario after MPP M. Kwinter who introduced it as a private member’s bill in 1997; it became law in 2000.   Originally part of the Helsinki Accord on Human Rights ratified by Canada in 1988,  it is part of the code of conduct of the World Medical Association. This clause states:

"A member [a doctor who is a member of a regulatory organization] shall not be found guilty of professional misconduct or of incompetence.... solely on the basis that the member practices a therapy that is non-traditional or that departs from the prevailing medical practice, unless there is evidence that proves that the therapy poses a greater risk to a patient's health than the traditional or prevailing practice."

 Its purpose is to (1) free the patient-doctor relationship from a third party's interference; (2) permit therapies and agents not yet part of clinical guidelines, but known from medical research to be helpful; (3) transferring the onus proof of harm on the regulatory agency or the patient, rather than expect the physician to prove the therapy's safety prior to its use, which is generally impossible; (4) prevent regulatory agencies from prosecuting a physician regardless of good outcomes – unfortunately common due to the systemic conflicts of interest caused by the drug industry’s influence on medical practice. In Canada , the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons blatantly prosecuted their members for decades despite protest from thousands of patients helped by new therapies the College arbitrarily disapproved of (see Glasnost Report 2001 www.kospublishing.com click on "Make A Difference").

The first province to adopt this clause with unanimous legislative consent was Alberta in 1997 after vigorous opposition from the Association of Canadian Pharmacies, which lobbied long and hard against it,  citing loss of income if patients could choose non-drug treatments. British Columbia followed under their NDP government, but subsequently the Liberals watered it down, returning some of the arbitrary powers reduced by this bill to the BC College. The Maritimes created a subsection for the protection of nutritional/orthomolecular medicine which has largely the effect of this bill, but does not fully incorporate the wording of the Helsinki Accord.

Ontarians waged a battle royal for this amendment, being the province with the most doctors.  Championed by MPP M. Kwinter (now the Minister of Correctional Services) when he was among the Opposition Liberals, he was supported by Progressive Conservative Premier Harris. Kwinter became interested in this cause after a chance meeting with Dr. Jerry Green of Toronto who had lost his license after successfully using nutritional regimes to support standard cancer therapy, already then known to be effective from mainstream research coming out of Harvard Medical School .  Kwinter and Ontario grassroots organizations, such as Citizens for Choice in Health Care, worked hard for 4 years to overcome the College’s determined effort to prevent this amendment. The College even warning that babies with pneumonia would be wrapped in cabbage leaves instead of receive antibiotics if this bill were to pass. The amendment became law with unanimous legislative consent in 2000 and resulted in dozens of doctors  preserving their licenses, then in various stages of appeal against their College's attempt to suppress especially chronic pain, alternative asthma and environmental medicine.

Subsequently vigorously tested in court between 2000 and 2004 through court appeals, all won in varying degrees, the amendment was especially helpful in aborting intended disciplinary actions, especially against doctors practicing chelation therapy in detoxification or cardiovascular protocols.

Undoubtedly, adoption of this health freedom bill always reduces the arbitrary power of the Colleges; they are able to exercise such power because administrative law grants to professional groups self-regulatory powers that exceed police powers. It permits the setting of internal standards and grants powers of professional death sentences outside the regular court system. To initiate prosecution, colleges tend to use practice guidelines, usually outdated within a year of publication due to the rapid increase in medical information.  As now revealed in detail by the former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. J. Kassirer, guidelines are thoroughly contaminated by the drug industry represented on most colleges councils and medical boards.  As a result, especially doctors using less drugs or promoting preventive and nutritional therapies have been targeted and often loose their licenses, regardless of documented excellent patient outcomes.

Only if the member challenges the association’s decision, does the case proceed to a regular court where a conviction is often set aside, if the professional disciplinary process is found to have made procedural errors,  mishandled Common Law practice, or ignored rules of evidence. This has become costly and so great a political embarrassment, that the Ontario College now supports having a professional judge preside over disciplinary trials and even wishes to reduce its involvement with clinical guidelines.

In 2001 Ian Bresslaw, an interested citizen, emerged as the sole fighter for this amendment in Manitoba, which has no patient groups like Ontario, He knew of many doctors afraid to practice in accordance with current published medical literature, fearing college action against them. Many secretly practiced nutritional and environmental medicine. Ian got the support of a Ukrainian priest, Father M. Kushko of Saskatchewan , whose beneficial influence pertaining to curbing Big Pharma’s influence and the need for preventive medicine can be seen in Canada ’s Romanow Report, being a life-long friend of its author. Ian’s project was also supported by famous Manitoban, the former Governor General of Canada Ed Shreyer (governor 1979-1984), whose family has had positive experience with nutritional medicine expert Dr. Abram Hoffer.  Finally, a supportive Minister of Health was appointed, the Hon. Tim Sale. Introduced as a  private member's bill by Opposition Conservative MLA Len Durkach, it became law with unanimous legislative consent on June 16.

On Monday June 13th presentations were made in support of the bill in the legislative building in Winnipeg including homeopathic doctors, a holistic dentist, Ian Breslaw himself, and various private individuals. I was asked to describe the history and effect of this bill wherever it has been passed. I provided the committee with international data on deaths by standard medicine versus alternative medicine from the UK , Canada , USA , Australia and New Zealand for 2004. ( Johns Hopkins Medical School identifies standard medicine as being the leading cause of death because of the high toxicity of synthetic drugs, while alternative medicine recorded 2 uncertain cases in 2003.)

Now groups in Saskatchewan , Quebec , and the Maritimes are working on incorporating the Helsinki Accord’s medical clause into their legislation.

J. Kassirer MD, On The Take, Oxford University Press, 2005; C. Dean MD, Death by Modern Medicine, Matrix Verite, 2005.  The full story of the Kwinter Bill and its impact on North American medicine will be in Malice in Medicine, Kos Publishing Inc, scheduled for 2006.  Many stories of improperly prosecuted doctors are part of my book Dispatches from the War Zone of Environmental Health, Kos Publishing 2004, order through www.kospublishing.com or call 519-927-1049.