Monday, July 09, 2012
Friday, February 19, 2010
Truehope loses court battle with Health Canada
The battle that Truehope started way back in 2003 has had what we would consider to be a happy ending. The Federal government defended itself by presenting evidence that convinced the court that what Tony Stephan, David Hardy and their entourage tried to do was actually wrong. Their lawyer Shawn Buckley presented the usual case with submissions from Dr. Bonnie Kaplan and the rest of their supporters. But, in the end they failed to impress the judge with their arguments. We don't know what the legal costs have added up to, but they must be significant. Shawn Buckley has filed an appeal.
Links to the actual court case:
The case was won because Health Canada's lawyer proved to the judge that Truehope had violated the Foods and Drug Act when they advertised and imported unapproved products to be sold by them in Canada.
E.M.Power has not received a DIN or NOC for any of the indications for which it is being sold and advertised and is not properly labelled. Consequently, the false, misleading, and deceptive selling/advertising of this unapproved and improperly labelled drug product is in violation of sections 9(1), 9(2), C.01.003, C.01.004.01, and C.01.005.
Shawn Buckley videos on health freedom, government seizures, and Bill C-6:
- Appeal filed on February 16, 2010
We've made a blind girl see again!!!!!
Truehope's Empowerplus and other miracles
This report is from someone who attended a meeting hosted in Ohio by John Keim. They recorded their observations and opinion. I would judge them to be fair comments about the presenters and the products discussed. It is our job to report what others have to say in an objective manner. You be the judge if you believe this report or not.
David Hardy and Anthony Stephan presentation hosted by John Keim - September 16, 2009.
Highlights
Subject: How to get off medications and experience good health by using Truehope productsAttendance: 150 people from Canada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Virginia.
Presenters: John Keim who organized the meeting in Shiloh, Anthony Stephan and David Hardy who founded Truehope in Alberta, Canada.
Testimonials were numerous, including the usual stories from Tony about his wife's suicide just two weeks after she went on Prozac. Both Tony and Dave tended to bring in the name of God whenever they felt it necessary. My guess is that the room was full of Amish or Mennonites that needed to hear it in order to lend evangelical credibility to their spiel.
The testimonials were liberally spread around with miraculous claims about a six year old children who was cured of blindness, to an older woman who was saved from hospitalization because her husband forced her to take the nutrients they were promoting.
Then there were the very unsubstantiated claims made by researchers done in five universities, including Ohio State University. No mention was made about the research studies that have been halted over the years by regulators in two countries.
It would appear that "everyone" needs to be supplemented with their stuff. Unsubstantiated claims were made that their product showed a huge difference when compared to placebo.
Once again the 150 people in the audience heard that this product can grow back brain cells, and because the Creator is a lot smarter than scientists, 90% of poor health would disappear if only people took supplements. I assume that meant THEIR supplements.
Does it help everyone? YES IT WILL....”It's a God given answer!”
Not only that – it's a scientific fact that 50 genetic illnesses can be cured with this program. The drug companies don't want you to know that this stuff works.
The cost of one bottle of 225 pills is $74.95 and was quoted in U.S. Dollars. And by the way you have to take 15 pills a day. It's not about the money, it's about helping people and just in case you didn't know, you have to take it for the rest of you life.
Anthony Stephan and David Hardy target Old Order Amish and Mennonites even though they are Mormon. Who is responsible for this?
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Autumn Stringam's whirlwind book promotion
Autumn Stringam is Tony Stephan's daughter. She's been busy promoting the latest version of her autobiographical book, Promise of Hope .It was published in September 2007 by Harper Collins, a major Canadian publisher.
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Monday, December 25, 2006
Health Canada loses court decision
On Friday July 28, 2006 Alberta Provincial Court Judge Gerald Meagher read the salient points of a decision on a prosecution between Health Canada and Truehope Nutritional Support before a full courtroom of Truehope supporters, and a few reporters.
The long awaited trial on this matter took place in March of 2006. Health Canada demonstrated with no difficulty that Truehope was indeed selling the product without the required DIN. However, the main issue of the trial was the defense by Truehope, that they were compelled by necessity to continue selling the product, as people were benefiting it, and there would be more harm than good done if Truehope indeed had obeyed the law, and stopped selling the product. On the main issue of the trial, Health Canada, in its infinite wisdom, chose to not show up.
While Judge Meagher said there were complex issues in the trial, the decision was really an easy one to conclude. It was no contest.
Health Canada chose to only have three witnesses testify - two were inspectors involved in the search and seizure under warrant in July of 2003, and one other person was involved with issuing DIN's. Health Canada clearly showed that the product was being sold without a DIN.
Health Canada:
· Had no expert witnesses testify to the risks of selling a product with little formal scientific proof to the seriously mentally ill,
· Did not address the issue of Truehope having a call center staffed with support people giving medical advice to customers, even though the support people have no formal health science training,
· Did not address the problem of adverse reactions that have been reported with the product, including one particularly dramatic case in the Ottawa area,
· Neglected to bring up the issue of Truehope people recommending customers cease their prescription drug therapy and instead use EM Power, at great potential risk to their health.
In fact, Health Canada had nobody even attend the trial after their three witnesses testified, and they had no representation on the day of the judgment.
Health Canada should have known that Alberta Children's Hospital child psychologist Dr. Bonnie Kaplan would be testifying for the defense. Kaplan could have, and probably should have, been grilled on the many shortcomings of her preliminary research on EM Power. Shortcomings which include, among other issues, the very low numbers of participants in the studies, the number of drop outs, and the fact that the studies were not double blind studies.
The relationship of Dr. Kaplan to Truehope has always been an issue for this writer - she never did answer a question put to her in court asking if she was aligned with the Company (she answered by saying "I don't know what you mean by being aligned...") Certainly, giving Dr. Kaplan a free ride in this matter was not in the public interest.
Another expert witness called by the Defense, a Boston area psychiatrist Dr. Charles Popper wasn't even cross-examined by the prosecutor who was representing Health Canada. Dr. Popper's observations are not scientific, and not controlled in any way. They are just anecdotal observations by a clinical psychiatrist. These expert witnesses did not address the issue of whether the product should be sold as a treatment to the mentally ill population by non-professional people without any professional control.
Other points where Health Canada was severely criticized by the Judge included the fact that Truehope had tried to have meetings with Health Canada, and that there were few alternatives suggested to solve the dispute. While some of these meeting requests were simply political grandstanding, (such as the "Red Umbrellas" trip to Ottawa, and a demonstration at then Minister of Health Anne McClellan's Office), we do agree that Health Canada should of been more user-friendly to seek out alternatives to this matter. Health Canada has always had a black and white vision of the world, which serves no useful purpose today.
The failed prosecution now means that the Health Canada Compliance and Enforcement Unit has not had a successful prosecution of any kind since 1997. The Health Canada Compliance Unit, imaginatively known as "The Inspectorate", has continued to be out of the loop on most of the investigative health product issues over the last 15 years. The Montreal diet fraud problem, which Rainbow Investigations has covered for years, is only one of a whole bunch of situations where fraud artists have simply made business decisions to market fraudulent products, taking full advantage of the dysfunctional Enforcement Unit. The Enforcement Unit badly lacks the skill set to do a proper investigation leading to a prosecution.
Health Canada flatly refuses to engage in any effective communication in the public domain so that Canadians know both sides of complex stories like the Truehope matter.
There do appear to be some cosmetic changes recently to Health Canada's Compliance and Enforcement Unit. However, at this point, Health Canada, or the politicians for responsible for Health Canada, really have only one choice on the plate. Either they completely remodel this Unit from top to bottom, and update its 1960's style of doing business, or throw in the towel before we get any more embarrassments! At this point, in the year 2006, the $15 million spent annually on the Inspectorate can probably be better spent elsewhere.
The Truehope trial has demonstrated what many of us have known for some time - the Canadian marketplace, for all intents and purposes, remains a voluntary compliance market with respect to food, health and drug products. If the government cannot enforce any rules, the rules only apply to those who wish to follow them.
Voluntary compliance markets, such as we have in Canada for food, drugs and health products, does have implications for parties who should have interests in such products. Certainly the professional medical community and the mental health support community should have an interest in issues like the Truehope matter. Yet, both these groups have been virtually silent in this matter, choosing to not get involved publicly. Stakeholders must keep in mind that if they choose to not get publicly involved, they will have no chance of having their concerns addressed. This is especially true when dealing with people like the Truehope proprietors', who, as we all know, are very comfortable in the public domain.
In closing, while we are somewhat less uncomfortable with the Truehope operation than we were a few years ago, we still have grave concerns with the implications of having a voluntary compliance market for food, drug, and health products.
We really believe Canada is ripe and waiting for a scenario far more sinister and far more notorious than anything we have seen yet.
August 8, 2006
Posted By: Ron Reinhold
The long awaited trial on this matter took place in March of 2006. Health Canada demonstrated with no difficulty that Truehope was indeed selling the product without the required DIN. However, the main issue of the trial was the defense by Truehope, that they were compelled by necessity to continue selling the product, as people were benefiting it, and there would be more harm than good done if Truehope indeed had obeyed the law, and stopped selling the product. On the main issue of the trial, Health Canada, in its infinite wisdom, chose to not show up.
While Judge Meagher said there were complex issues in the trial, the decision was really an easy one to conclude. It was no contest.
Health Canada chose to only have three witnesses testify - two were inspectors involved in the search and seizure under warrant in July of 2003, and one other person was involved with issuing DIN's. Health Canada clearly showed that the product was being sold without a DIN.
Health Canada:
· Had no expert witnesses testify to the risks of selling a product with little formal scientific proof to the seriously mentally ill,
· Did not address the issue of Truehope having a call center staffed with support people giving medical advice to customers, even though the support people have no formal health science training,
· Did not address the problem of adverse reactions that have been reported with the product, including one particularly dramatic case in the Ottawa area,
· Neglected to bring up the issue of Truehope people recommending customers cease their prescription drug therapy and instead use EM Power, at great potential risk to their health.
In fact, Health Canada had nobody even attend the trial after their three witnesses testified, and they had no representation on the day of the judgment.
Health Canada should have known that Alberta Children's Hospital child psychologist Dr. Bonnie Kaplan would be testifying for the defense. Kaplan could have, and probably should have, been grilled on the many shortcomings of her preliminary research on EM Power. Shortcomings which include, among other issues, the very low numbers of participants in the studies, the number of drop outs, and the fact that the studies were not double blind studies.
The relationship of Dr. Kaplan to Truehope has always been an issue for this writer - she never did answer a question put to her in court asking if she was aligned with the Company (she answered by saying "I don't know what you mean by being aligned...") Certainly, giving Dr. Kaplan a free ride in this matter was not in the public interest.
Another expert witness called by the Defense, a Boston area psychiatrist Dr. Charles Popper wasn't even cross-examined by the prosecutor who was representing Health Canada. Dr. Popper's observations are not scientific, and not controlled in any way. They are just anecdotal observations by a clinical psychiatrist. These expert witnesses did not address the issue of whether the product should be sold as a treatment to the mentally ill population by non-professional people without any professional control.
Other points where Health Canada was severely criticized by the Judge included the fact that Truehope had tried to have meetings with Health Canada, and that there were few alternatives suggested to solve the dispute. While some of these meeting requests were simply political grandstanding, (such as the "Red Umbrellas" trip to Ottawa, and a demonstration at then Minister of Health Anne McClellan's Office), we do agree that Health Canada should of been more user-friendly to seek out alternatives to this matter. Health Canada has always had a black and white vision of the world, which serves no useful purpose today.
The failed prosecution now means that the Health Canada Compliance and Enforcement Unit has not had a successful prosecution of any kind since 1997. The Health Canada Compliance Unit, imaginatively known as "The Inspectorate", has continued to be out of the loop on most of the investigative health product issues over the last 15 years. The Montreal diet fraud problem, which Rainbow Investigations has covered for years, is only one of a whole bunch of situations where fraud artists have simply made business decisions to market fraudulent products, taking full advantage of the dysfunctional Enforcement Unit. The Enforcement Unit badly lacks the skill set to do a proper investigation leading to a prosecution.
Health Canada flatly refuses to engage in any effective communication in the public domain so that Canadians know both sides of complex stories like the Truehope matter.
There do appear to be some cosmetic changes recently to Health Canada's Compliance and Enforcement Unit. However, at this point, Health Canada, or the politicians for responsible for Health Canada, really have only one choice on the plate. Either they completely remodel this Unit from top to bottom, and update its 1960's style of doing business, or throw in the towel before we get any more embarrassments! At this point, in the year 2006, the $15 million spent annually on the Inspectorate can probably be better spent elsewhere.
The Truehope trial has demonstrated what many of us have known for some time - the Canadian marketplace, for all intents and purposes, remains a voluntary compliance market with respect to food, health and drug products. If the government cannot enforce any rules, the rules only apply to those who wish to follow them.
Voluntary compliance markets, such as we have in Canada for food, drugs and health products, does have implications for parties who should have interests in such products. Certainly the professional medical community and the mental health support community should have an interest in issues like the Truehope matter. Yet, both these groups have been virtually silent in this matter, choosing to not get involved publicly. Stakeholders must keep in mind that if they choose to not get publicly involved, they will have no chance of having their concerns addressed. This is especially true when dealing with people like the Truehope proprietors', who, as we all know, are very comfortable in the public domain.
In closing, while we are somewhat less uncomfortable with the Truehope operation than we were a few years ago, we still have grave concerns with the implications of having a voluntary compliance market for food, drug, and health products.
We really believe Canada is ripe and waiting for a scenario far more sinister and far more notorious than anything we have seen yet.
August 8, 2006
Posted By: Ron Reinhold
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Will Empowerplus help you?
The Synergy Group of Canada is located in southern Alberta, Canada and takes orders for several products made in the United States. Some of them have been banned for sale in Canada by the Canadian government. However, you can still order them and be coached by their associates by phone up here in Canada.
The company has been marketing this vitamin-mineral-herbal supplements via the internet and phone support system since about October 2000. In addition, despite the fact that trials that used Empowerplus were stopped by the Canadian government and others, the company makes claims that they are attempting to do new clinical trials with other mixtures that they have devised. Of course as of the beginning of 2006, there have still been no studies that would satisfy the requirements for marketing or delivering Empowerplus from Canada.
While the company awaits their date in Court in Alberta after charges were made for violations of the Food and Drug Act of Canada, thousands of people around the world are still able to purchase and use their products.
The history of the Synergy Group is detailed in a book called Pig Pills, Inc. and is available as an e-book for $15.00 U.S.
We hope that after reading the book, your interest in the company and its products will lead you make a decision one way or the other. Do you trust an entrepreneur and his partner in Southern Alberta with your health, or do you trust the Federal government?
The company has been marketing this vitamin-mineral-herbal supplements via the internet and phone support system since about October 2000. In addition, despite the fact that trials that used Empowerplus were stopped by the Canadian government and others, the company makes claims that they are attempting to do new clinical trials with other mixtures that they have devised. Of course as of the beginning of 2006, there have still been no studies that would satisfy the requirements for marketing or delivering Empowerplus from Canada.
While the company awaits their date in Court in Alberta after charges were made for violations of the Food and Drug Act of Canada, thousands of people around the world are still able to purchase and use their products.
The history of the Synergy Group is detailed in a book called Pig Pills, Inc. and is available as an e-book for $15.00 U.S.
We hope that after reading the book, your interest in the company and its products will lead you make a decision one way or the other. Do you trust an entrepreneur and his partner in Southern Alberta with your health, or do you trust the Federal government?
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