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Message %MY_REPRESENTATIVE%, MP House of Commons Parliament Buildings Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6 Dear %MY_REPRESENTATIVE%, I am your constituent in the riding of %RIDING%. I am taking this opportunity to discuss Health Canada's current Consultation - "Reducing Youth Access and Appeal of Vaping Products: Potential Regulatory Measures" [1] and my concerns that we are witnessing a denial of fundamental justice and of open and transparent regulatory development. We need to show that democratic institutions work and that Canada can withstand the global assault on the underpinnings of liberal democracies. I, like many other adult Canadians, rely on various flavoured e-liquid to make vaping more palatable and to also stay smoke free. We need to find the right balance between over regulating an adult smoker's right to use a vaping product but at the same time restricting youth access and exposure to vaping. Creating any further restrictions on flavours is not a balanced approach. My concern is that Minister Petitpas Taylor has ignored the interests of Canadian smokers and ex-smokers who use vapour products and has not engaged with the Canadian vaping community, in direct contradiction to her mandate [2]. The invitation for Canadians to respond was issued in an atmosphere that constitutes a veiled threat of extreme actions, coupled with press releases, comments from officials, and changes to the Health Canada web site that reflect a harsher and much less humane and scientific view of vaping than was expressed last summer. Health Canada has stated that the data reported in an unpublished study is a major reason for proposing stricter measures. Several authorities who are known to be against vaping have been given access to this study and have used it to promote their own views, and the press has been given freedom to spread an apparently slanted view of the study's implications widely. As far as anyone knows, there has been no peer-reviewed published version of this study. Certainly there has been no opportunity for anyone in the vaping industry to offer comments. Not only the livelihoods of many Canadians, but the very lives of a great many, are being put at risk based on evidence that we are not allowed to see. This is a clear violation of principles of fundamental justice and contradicts the prime minister's mandate to the Minister to ensure open discussion with stakeholders of the issue. One of the papers accompanying this consultation paper requires people who work in the vaping "industry" to identify themselves in their submissions Apparently this is an attempt to apply the WHO's rejection of input from the tobacco industry to the Canadian vaping community. Excluding this group from the earliest discussion of new regulations has allowed bad policies to spread. Further, to focus only on the supposed conflicts of those helping smokers switch to far less hazardous products while ignoring the egregious conflicts of those being funded by abstinence-only bodies or pharmaceutical companies is another failure of fundamental justice. There is no evidence offered that the existing regulations are inadequate to the point that the Charter's 'right to life' can be overridden. Minister Petitpas Taylor and Health Canada seem to ignore the positive affects of vaping for smokers and have encouraged and promoted an anti-vaping stance in public health officials and the media. At the very least, there must be a moratorium on any further regulations until Health Canada and Petitpas Taylor have a better understanding of the validity and the causes of any youth 'epidemic' and whatever issues arise are addressed in the least Charter-intrusive way possible. If there is indeed an issue, they must openly share the basis for such a finding and must find a way to ensure the greatest protection of the health of all Canadians, not just rebellious youth. Allowing an unpublished report with unsubstantiated data to alter Health Canada's previously-avowed position will put the lives of millions Canadians at risk. A reaction based on fear, secrecy and exclusion of stakeholders is not a healthy one, and is not in the culture of my country. Basing decisions on a hypothesis that has yet to be proven, and yet threatens lives and livelihoods, goes against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the overall rule of law that exists to protect me. I am asking you today to stand up for me, and so many others who have quit smoking through vaping, and the millions of Canadians who are still smoking. Stand up for harm reduction, human rights, good science, and our Charter. Stand up for fair and equitable regulations for vapour products and for real stakeholder engagement. Sincerely, %FIRST_NAME% %LAST_NAME% %EMAIL% cc: The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, P.C., M.P., Prime Minister of Canada cc: The Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor P.C., Minister of Health cc: Katie Telford, Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister of Canada [1] https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/programs/consultation-reducing-youth-access-appeal-vaping-products-potential-regulatory-measures.html [2] https://pm.gc.ca/eng/minister-health-mandate-letter