Hulda Clark — Cancer Quack
Clark claimed she could cure all cancers within five days using a low-voltage electrical device and herbs. She died of cancer in 2009, despite her own claimed cures. Her family continues to profit from her books and devices. Patients have died following her protocols.
Bill O'Neill & the Cancer Research Group
Ottawa-based cancer clinic raided by police and the CPSO in May 2007. CTV's Dr. Hope documentary exposed the clinic in January 2006. O'Neill — founder of "Aminomics" and "Immune System Management" — died in hospital in March 2013.
Tyrell Dueck — Lured to Tijuana
A 13-year-old Saskatchewan boy with cancer was steered away from curative treatment toward a Tijuana quack clinic by a chiropractor and an evangelical lawyer. His preventable death prompted national outrage and a court battle over parental medical rights.
Adam Dreamhealer — Flim-Flam in Vancouver
A university student who claimed to heal cancer patients remotely by looking at their photographs attracted media coverage and a CBC appearance — without a single critical question. James Randi offered him $1 million to demonstrate his abilities under controlled conditions. He never collected.
Discovery Health & the Synergy Group — How a Major Cable Network Promoted an Unproven Supplement to 50 Countries
On October 16, 2002, Discovery Health Channel broadcast a nearly two-hour documentary promoting the Synergy Group's EMPowerplus supplement as a cure for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia — five months after Health Canada issued a formal public warning against the product, and while Truehope was actively suing Health Canada in court.
The documentary opens with the 1994 death by suicide of Debbie Stephan, wife of Truehope co-founder Tony Stephan and mother of ten children. It frames the supplement as a divinely inspired miracle discovered by a hog-feed salesman from Cardston, Alberta — and ends with Tony holding up his son's last lithium prescription as "a symbol of freedom and success." It is emotionally compelling and expertly produced. It is also a promotional film for a product Health Canada had already warned Canadians against.
What the broadcast did not mention:
- That Health Canada had issued a formal public warning against EMPowerplus five months before the broadcast date
- That Truehope was actively suing Health Canada at the time the documentary aired
- That a non-credentialed "medical liaison" named David Gilbert was, at that same moment, conducting unsupervised weekly medication-reduction sessions by phone with over 150 patients across Canada — from Toronto hotel ballrooms to St. Joseph's Hospital Hamilton
- That the "90% success rate" claims being made at Synergy Group seminars had no published, peer-reviewed support
- That the only completed randomized controlled trial of EMPowerplus — in fibromyalgia patients — had already found the product failed to improve symptoms, with 34 of 99 patients dropping out due to gastrointestinal side effects
What it did say, in a single sentence near the end: "EM Power Plus doesn't work for everyone."
The documentary has been described by Truehope's own family members as "what put TrueHope on the map internationally." Alliance Atlantis — at the time one of Canada's largest entertainment companies — and Discovery Communications delivered this story to audiences in 50 countries while Health Canada's warning gathered dust. No regulator complained. No broadcaster was sanctioned.
Dr. Polevoy's full transcript of the Discovery Health broadcast is archived here. It is one of the only complete primary-source records of the Truehope/Synergy promotional machine captured during its peak international expansion.
Lana Dale Lewis — Death After Neck Manipulation
Lana Dale Lewis stroked out and died after chiropractic neck manipulation. A coroner's inquest took nearly two years; the family waited seven years to learn the real cause of her death. The chiropractor remained in practice.
Pediatric Chiropractic — Weekend Courses
Chiropractors train each other in pediatric techniques at weekend hotel seminars. There is no clinical evidence that any chiropractic treatment is effective for infants or children. They promote it for colic, ear infections, bedwetting, and asthma.
CMCC Fails Bid to Join York University
The Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College attempted to affiliate with York University — Canada's third-largest — in exchange for $25 million. The bid failed after sustained opposition from the medical and scientific community.
Anti-Vaccine Chiropractors
Nearly a decade passed before regulators moved against any chiropractor for circulating anti-vaccine material in waiting rooms. In Ontario, a CCO executive council member continued distributing anti-vaccine junk at health shows — against their own regulations.
The sunbed industry has spent millions to avoid regulation and suppress evidence of harm. It targets teenagers with "tanorexia" addiction loops, funds medical researchers to generate favourable studies, and once enlisted the Governor of California as a spokesperson. HealthWatcher's ISCAN project documents the industry's tactics, the real cancer risk, and how victims can pursue legal action.
Visit ISCAN →Co-authored by Dr. Terry Polevoy, Marvin Ross, and Ron Reinhold — the result of over two years of investigation into the bizarre claims and marketing of a nutraceutical made in Utah, sold in Alberta, and aggressively promoted to families of bipolar patients over the sustained objections of Health Canada. The story involves university researchers, extraordinary media hype, and a political lobbying campaign that reached Parliament.
Read More →Diet Fraud
Weight loss is the most fertile ground for health fraud in North America. HealthWatcher's DietFraud archive documents the FTC actions, the phony testimonials, the dangerous ingredients, and the companies that keep reappearing under new names after enforcement actions.
Herbal Watch
"Natural" does not mean safe. HerbalWatch tracks dangerous herb-drug interactions, contaminated products, mislabelled supplements, and the companies marketing traditional remedies with disease cure claims that violate Canadian and U.S. law.