The NHPPA Podcast

A brief conversation with Jason Dahl, campaign coordinator for the NHPPA, recorded during the Parliament Hill event of the Health Charter Tour. Speaking as a Yukoner from Whitehorse, Jason highlights the nationwide relevance of the tour by contrasting the Yukon’s small population with the scale of federal decision-making that affects all Canadians equally. He explains how concerns about access to natural health products and the right to make personal health choices resonate just as strongly in northern and remote communities as they do in large urban centres. Jason describes organizing a Yukon event with uncertainty about turnout, only to see it fill a local health food store, reinforcing that Canadians across the country share the same concerns about overregulation and health freedom. He emphasizes the importance of national solidarity, grassroots organizing, and ensuring that voices from the territories are represented in conversations about health policy and access. Learn more about the NHPPA’s cross-Canada tour and the Charter of Health Freedom at nhppa.org/join-the-tour/. Subscribe to our free newsletter to stay informed about how you can educate and activate your community: https://nhppa.org/subscribe/

Josh Prefontaine, a young TCM student, joins us as he is about to graduate, who we learned had written and submitted a brief to the Standing Committee on Health! Take Action 📨 Send an e-letter to the Liberal government and the Standing Committee on Health https://nhppa.org/cohf-26/ 📰 Subscribe to the NHPPA weekly newsletter https://nhppa.org/subscribe Guests Jason Dahl – Host Shawn Buckley – President, Natural Health Products Protection Association (NHPPA) Teresa Buckley – NHPPA Eric Clegg – NHPPA Josh Prefontaine — TCM Student

A conversation with Marie-Lise, recorded during the Parliament Hill event of the Health Charter Tour. Speaking in French, Marie-Lise describes her role as the Quebec representative for the Charter of Health Freedom and her journey running the “Blue Highway” from Quebec City to Ottawa to collect signatures. (Translated from French) With more than 40 years of experience in the natural health field, she reflects on how increasing regulation since 2008 has forced companies to close, raised costs for natural health products, and placed growing burdens on practitioners, manufacturers, and consumers. Marie-Lise explains that the Charter was created to protect freedom of choice in healthcare, including the right to choose one’s naturopath, homeopath, therapist, and treatments. She recounts personally collecting approximately 3,000 signatures in Quebec as part of a nationwide paper petition that surpassed 150,000 signatures, making it one of the largest of its kind in Canadian history. She describes the Health Charter Tour as a historic, grassroots movement that brought together consumers, practitioners, retailers, producers, and distributors across the country, and emphasizes that delivering the Charter to Parliament represents the beginning of a larger effort to reclaim health choice, dignity, and access for Canadians. Learn more about the NHPPA’s cross-Canada tour and the Charter of Health Freedom at nhppa.org/join-the-tour/. Subscribe to our free newsletter to stay informed about how you can educate and activate your community: https://nhppa.org/subscribe/

A wide-ranging conversation with Jason Watkins recorded during the NHPPA Health Charter Tour event at Biker’s Church in Ottawa. Jason shares his background in experimental medicine and his early belief in Canada’s health system before developing a natural health product that produced measurable improvements in autoimmune conditions, outperforming conventional drug therapies based on objective blood markers. He recounts how the product’s success led to regulatory scrutiny, RCMP raids, and a six-year legal battle with Health Canada, during which his company was criminally charged before the case was ultimately dropped. Jason describes internal Health Canada communications that acknowledged the safety of ingredients such as MSM while simultaneously portraying them as dangerous to justify prosecution. Throughout the discussion, Jason and Shawn reflect on censorship, misuse of science, and the transformation of regulatory systems into tools of control. Jason emphasizes personal responsibility, truth-telling, and grassroots action, noting that he has spoken at both the inaugural Victoria event and the final Ottawa event of the tour as part of a broader effort to encourage Canadians to speak openly, share health stories, and defend access to natural health products. Learn more about the NHPPA’s cross-Canada tour and the Charter of Health Freedom at nhppa.org/join-the-tour/. Subscribe to our free newsletter to stay informed about how you can educate and activate your community: https://nhppa.org/subscribe/

A reflective conversation with Ken Drysdale recorded during the NHPPA Health Charter Tour event at Biker’s Church in Ottawa. Ken explains the origins and structure of the National Citizens Inquiry, a citizen-funded and citizen-run quasi-judicial inquiry formed to examine how governments at all levels handled COVID-related policies. He describes the unprecedented scope of the inquiry, which heard testimony from 305 witnesses across eight Canadian cities, producing a comprehensive public report exceeding 5,000 pages, including a 664-page written analysis. Ken outlines how the inquiry was designed to be accessible to everyday Canadians through plain language, a detailed table of contents, and freely available online access. He reflects on the emotional and social impact of the hearings, noting how the process helped many participants realize they were not alone or “crazy,” and compares the inquiry’s role to an “injection of truth” that reduced fear and restored dialogue. The conversation addresses widespread media silence, censorship, and the concentration of media power, emphasizing the importance of grassroots communication and citizen involvement. Ken concludes with a call for Canadians to move beyond passive voting, get involved locally, share information responsibly, and actively participate in restoring democratic accountability and community resilience. Learn more about the NHPPA’s cross-Canada tour and the Charter of Health Freedom at nhppa.org/join-the-tour/. Subscribe to our free newsletter to stay informed about how you can educate and activate your community: https://nhppa.org/subscribe/

A short address by Teresa Buckley, Communications Director at the NHPPA, delivered during the Ottawa evening event at Biker’s Church as part of the Health Charter Tour. Teresa reflects on her experience leading communications for the National Citizens Inquiry, where citizen-led efforts generated tens of millions of social media impressions despite limited resources and widespread censorship. She shares her internal struggle about whether advocacy efforts truly make a difference, and recounts the moment that clarified her role: the simple but powerful instruction to “tell people to tell people.” Teresa explains how meaningful change depends on exponential, person-to-person sharing rather than passive consumption of information, comparing the process to basic mathematics rather than persuasion. She challenges attendees to move beyond safe conversations and take responsibility for actively sharing the message, emphasizing that the success of grassroots movements depends on ordinary people choosing to speak, connect, and act. Learn more about the NHPPA’s cross-Canada tour and the Charter of Health Freedom at nhppa.org/join-the-tour/. Subscribe to our free newsletter to stay informed about how you can educate and activate your community: https://nhppa.org/subscribe/

A conversation with Renato Persechino recorded during the NHPPA Health Charter Tour event at Biker’s Church in Ottawa. Renato shares how his lifelong interest in health began in childhood after witnessing his grandfather’s rapid decline from lung cancer, leading him to study human performance, nutrition, and resilience. He describes his training in orthomolecular nutrition, homeopathy, and functional medicine, and explains his work supporting clients through lifestyle, movement, stress reduction, and targeted nutrient support. Renato discusses the critical role of independent health food stores, where well-trained staff provide guidance tailored to individual needs, contrasting this with big-box retail and online purchasing. He outlines how Health Canada regulations restrict staff from discussing effective nutrient dosages, using vitamin C as an example, despite its well-established role in immune function. Throughout the conversation, Renato emphasizes the importance of community-based health stores, ongoing staff education, and maintaining access to vital nutrients to prevent worsening chronic disease and rising mortality. Learn more about the NHPPA’s cross-Canada tour and the Charter of Health Freedom at nhppa.org/join-the-tour/. Subscribe to our free newsletter to stay informed about how you can educate and activate your community: https://nhppa.org/subscribe/

A discussion with Shawn Buckley and Teresa Buckley recorded during the NHPPA Health Charter Tour in Saskatoon. Shawn and Teresa reflect on the purpose of the tour and the need for meaningful follow-through beyond awareness, emphasizing grassroots citizen engagement and exponential, person-to-person communication. Teresa outlines the importance of moving beyond “safe conversations” and actively instructing others to share information about health freedom and access to natural remedies. The discussion addresses widespread suffering, chronic malnutrition, limitations of current health policy, and the urgency of creating a critical mass of informed Canadians to support better health outcomes and personal responsibility. Learn more about the NHPPA’s cross-Canada tour and the Charter of Health Freedom at nhppa.org/join-the-tour/. Subscribe to our free newsletter to stay informed about how you can educate and activate your community: https://nhppa.org/subscribe/

In this episode, we explore the growing impact of poor nutrition on chronic conditions, the role of vitamins like vitamin D in preventing disease, and why many patients see profound improvements when underlying deficiencies are addressed. Dr. Malthouse also speaks candidly about the limitations of the conventional medical system and how integrative approaches can offer meaningful alternatives for patients seeking better outcomes.

In this segment, Shawn Buckley explains that the push to introduce cloned meat into Canada goes far beyond labeling or consumer choice. He walks through how Health Canada quietly removed cloned meat from the “novel food” category, allowing it to enter the food supply without proof of safety. Shawn explains that regulators cannot allow a public debate on whether cloned meat should exist at all, because once it is widely consumed, it can no longer be meaningfully regulated or challenged. Shawn also outlines why cloned livestock is essential to the long-term strategies of biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, particularly their interest in using animals as platforms for biologics and other bioengineered products delivered through the food chain.
He explains how this shift enables mass exposure or treatment without public knowledge or consent and why media focus on labeling serves as a deliberate distraction from these structural goals. He concludes by warning that once cloned meat is normalized, Canadians lose the opportunity to question its safety, ethics, or necessity.
Find out more: https://nhppa.org/manufacturing-consent/ Read Shawn’s discussion paper: https://nhppa.org/manufacturing-consent/#discussion-consent Support this work with a donation: https://nhppa.org/donate