Health Canada

People have been hearing a lot about H5N1 bird flu — or highly pathogenic avian influenza — since a B.C. teen became the first human to get the virus in Canada and is in hospital.

Experts and health authorities say that while the risk of human infection with the H5N1 strain of the avian influenza remains low, people should avoid contact with sick or dead birds.

"It's like pesticides have constitutional rights and they are innocent until proven guilty," said Elizabeth May, the federal Green Party leader, who first entered politics in the 1980s to fight excessive pesticide use.

Streams that run through Prince Edward Island's potato country are contaminated with levels of an environmentally-destructive pesticide that exceed federal safety regulations, Canada's National Observer has found.

Health Canada is investigating after Canada's National Observer revealed that government officials supported efforts by the pesticide industry to discredit a researcher's findings and overturn a proposed ban on a class of pesticides harmful to bees, the environment and human health.

Canada’s National Observer’s reporting on pesticides paints a picture of a federal regulator captured by industry; the only way to break those ties is to blow it up and start over.

Canada's pesticide regulator is delaying the release of health and safety data, internal emails, briefing notes and other documents that justify its decision to approve several harmful pesticides, Canada's information commissioner has found.

In 2021, the Vancouver-based Drug User Liberation Front approached Health Canada with a proposal.

A blistering heat wave is moving across Western Canada, pushing record temperatures and the threat of wildfires into Saskatchewan.

Federal Addictions Minister Ya'ara Saks says she had "deep concerns" about the lack of limits Toronto put on its now-rejected pitch to decriminalize the possession of illegal drugs — and the city health agency's refusal to make any changes.

Toronto's bid to decriminalize the possession of illegal drugs for personal use has been plunged into uncertainty in recent days, as drug policy experts suggest political debates over British Columbia's backtracking on the issue have hurt the city's application.

Advocates for drug users are raising concerns about British Columbia's request for Health Canada to empower police to step in when they see illicit drug use in public spaces, saying it may be a step backward in the fight against the deadly opioid crisis.

Plans for supervised consumption sites sometimes result in a community backlash but the response in the Metro Vancouver community of Richmond, population 210,000, has been intense and protracted, lasting long after authorities said in mid-February that a proposal to explore the idea had been scrapped. 

Henk de Haan says that for five years he was blissfully unaware of the invisible danger as his children slept in the basement of their acreage home southwest of Calgary.

Health Canada has called the opioid crisis one of the most serious public health threats in recent history, and an addictions specialist says everyone can play a part in helping reduce the death toll. All it takes is access to naloxone, a life-saving medication that temporarily reverses an opioid overdose.