(Ottawa) To address the shortage of pediatric drugs such as Tylenol, Advil or Motrin, the Conservatives are proposing that Health Canada make an exception to the bilingualism requirement on original labeling so that containers can be relabeled in pharmacies, which the Trudeau government says it is open to.
Posted at 4:56 p.m.
Conservative health spokesman Michael Barrett said on Wednesday arriving at his party’s weekly caucus meeting that he will ask the government to “take action that they took at the start of the pandemic which has permitted inhalers labeled in a foreign language to enter Canada.
He gave the example of “a box that is in Spanish” which would not normally be found on shelves in the country, but which it would now be possible to import with instructions for health professionals and “temporary labeling or the possibility for pharmacists to transfer from one bottle to another and then label it in the pharmacy”.
Questioned on his arrival for question period, the Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos, explained that “no door is closed”, explaining that the country needs more acetaminophen in the coming months in due to the expected spread of respiratory viruses.
“The issue of bringing in drugs from abroad that are not properly labeled in both official languages must be handled properly to protect the health and safety of people who may need to use these drugs,” he said. -he says.
“The trap is seductive”
Called to comment on the Conservative proposal, the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, smiled from the outset by explaining that “the trap is attractive” to give up bilingual labeling in this case, then explained that he feared the risk that the French suffer because “it’s always that at the end of the day”.
“Basically, we’re going to see the pill manufacturers in China and then we’re going to tell them: ‘put all your labels in English,'” he said during a press scrum in Ottawa. According to him, it is also “a conservative specialty” to “invent a debate whose purpose is not exactly the stated intention”.
Citizens, both Francophones and Anglophones, must understand what is written on the pill bottles to respect the dosage, already that in his case “even when it’s written in French […] I have to read it four times, so imagine if it’s in Spanish or any other language”.
The Bloc leader, however, acknowledged that no parent wants to wait unduly for a drug and said he was open to speeding up the process if it is possible to have prescriptions “in the right language”.
The New Democratic Party has also indicated that we must be “strict” on labeling in both official languages.
“We have already seen exceptions that were made during the pandemic, said the deputy chief, Alexandre Boulerice. I think this was a mistake. This mistake should not be repeated. We must respect the francophone minority and it is also a matter of health and safety. »
Mr. Boulerice also mentioned that a citizen unable to read the instructions on a bottle could “take the dosage incorrectly and then make themselves sicker”.
The Trudeau government’s bill to modernize the Official Languages Act prohibits breaches of legal obligations relating to official languages. These, it is written in C-13, must apply “at all times”, including “in emergency situations”.