Canada

In a real sense the Canadians are leading the way in the fluoride fight. They are doing better than we are here in the US in getting our agencies to listen to us. Calgary is no longer fluoridated. Nor is Vancouver, and as far as I know, nor is all of BC.

Read about Quebec here.

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The Council of Canadians Opposes Fluoridation:

Drinking water is fluoridated in Canada, the United States and Australia, but almost nowhere else in the world. Western Europe and Japan have almost no fluoridated water supplies. About 43 percent of Canadians live in communities with fluoridated tap water.

The Council of Canadians is opposed to the fluoridation of drinking water. We are concerned by the health and environmental impacts associated with it.

We are working with the Quebec-based group Eau Secours which is opposing the Charest government’s plans to increase the fluoridation of water there from about 3 per cent to 50 per cent. We also encourage Council of Canadians chapters across the country to promote local debate and move municipal resolutions in their community on this issue.

Blogs

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From Aliss Terpstra of Toronto:

Canada has a different legal set up for fluoridation than U.S. Each province regulates drinking water quality but each municipality/ region is legally, financially and democratically responsible for fluoridation that must meet the provincial law. Health Canada and the provincial health agencies misinform the public and the elected councils that their recommendations carry legal authority but in fact they do not. Health Canada’s guideline for fluoride in drinking water is not enforceable and conflicts with their guideline that protects aquatic species in environmental water.

Calgary council told Health Canada and Alberta Health that their input on dental health was not required as the issue was far beyond tooth enamel! That was the direct result of ten years of citizens educating elected officials so that they were empowered to reject false authority and cite the actual science and ethical standards on which their decision was based.

Fluoridation chemicals must meet the prescribed standard, which is NSF Standard 60. As we all know, HFSA – the actual chemical used but never specified in Ontario law – has never been verified as meeting Standard 60 due to lack of toxicity and toxicology information. This is a key argument. But the provinces will NOT sue themselves, so there is no action taken against municipalities who fluoridate with a chemical that fails to meet the prescribed standard.

Our main problem is “cognitive dissonance” in councillors who simply cannot take in evidence we present that conflicts emotionally with their loyalty to their advisors and staff. When councillors are emotionally loyal to public health personalities they cannot act properly in our best interests and will deny to the death that the policy is harmful. As in Quebec, we here in Ontario are working to dissolve the unhealthy emotional dependency of our elected councils on these authority figures who cannot be held accountable by us, through meetings with key decision makers, social media, petitions, and community education.