"Every few years I would make an appointment with whoever was then "The Honourable the Minister of Health for Ontario" and would attend with a group of patients and a petition. First, Dr. Robb, then Dr. Faulkner and The Honourable Harold Kirby. Each year the group of patients would be more numerous, and the petitions would carry more names.

The last petition was presented in 1938 with a Bill requesting our government to legalize my ESSIAC treatment.

In 1938 a Bill was presented to the 2nd Session of the 20th Legislature of Ontario for:

"AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE RENE CAISSE TO PRACTISE MEDICINE IN THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO IN THE TREATMENT OF CANCER AND CONDITIONS RESULTING THEREFROM."

Attached to the Bill were petitions bearing names of more than fifty-five thousand (55,000) persons who were in favour of its passage. Of this number, three hundred and eighty-seven (387) were patients, and many were doctors.

The bill was presented by Mr. J. Frank Kelly, a Liberal member of Parliament, and by Mr. Leopold McCaulley, a Conservative member. It was presented to the second session of the 20th Legislature in Ontario; the Committee consisted of 59 members of Parliament. The Bill failed by only three votes. It would have authorized the practice of the treatment of cancer by a specialist without a medical rating. This was a position never before heard of in the conservative history of the Dominion of Canada.

I learned later that this unusual bill authorizing me to practice medicine in the treatment of cancer would no doubt have actually been approved by the Legislature, except that members of the medical profession assured the members that if the bill was not passed they would then sponsor the appointment of a "Cancer Commission" to hear my case and to give my treatment a fair hearing.

NOTE: It came to light later that the Canadian Medical Association had debated my case with the Legislature before my hearing and had made this false promise.

Soon after the hearing of my Bill, the Legislature Assembly in Ontario passed "AN ACT FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF REMEDIES FOR CANCER". This Act provided, among other things, that:

"The Commission may require any person who advertises, offers for sale, holds out, distributes, sells or advertises either free of charge or for gain, hire or hope of reward, any substance or method of treatment as a remedy for cancer, to submit samples of such substance or a description of such treatment, and samples of such substance used with such treatment to the Commission together with the formula of such substance and such other information pertaining to such substance or method of treatment as the Commission may determine."

I immediately closed my clinic, and reopened it only at the urgent request of the Minister of Health, The Honourable Harold J. Kirby and the Premier of Ontario, The Honourable Mitchell Hepburn.

The Honourable Mitchell Hepburn said at the time this Act was passed: "The onus is on the medical profession now. They must either prove or disprove Miss Caisse’s claims, and I do not believe they can disprove them. I am in sympathy with Miss Caisse’s work and will do all in my power to help her."

The Premier answered an inquiry from Mrs. Wilfred Raney, of Sunbridge, Ohio, about my treatment, stating that I could "carry on" as in the past. His letter of June 8, 1938, is attached  [and reads as follows]:

Mrs. Wilfred Raney
Sundridge, Ontario

Dear Mrs. Raney:

In reply to your letter of recent date relative to Miss Rene M. Caisse’s cancer cure, I wish to advise you that the Commission for the investigation of so-called cancer cures has not been set up as yet. Miss Caisse is in the same position today as she was prior to the passing of An Act for the Investigation of the Remedies for Cancer. There has been no interference whatever by the department of health, nor by any department of the government.

The Minister of Health and the Deputy Minister have personally interviewed Miss Caisse, and she has been advised that she can carry on her treatment in the meantime the same as she has done in the past.

With kind regards, I remain
Yours very sincerely,


(Signed Mitchell Hepburn)

Eventually, on December 31, 1939, the Commission into the Investigation of Cancer Remedies brought in its report which read in part:

"After careful examination of all the evidence submitted and analyzed herewith and, not forgetting the fact that the patients, or a number of them, who came before the Commission, felt they had been benefitted by the treatment which they had received, the Commission is of the opinion that the evidence adduced does not justify any favourable conclusion as to the merits of ESSIAC as a remedy for cancer and would so report."

It is my opinion, that the hearing of my case before the Cancer Commission was one of the greatest farces ever perpetrated in the history of medicine. More than 380 patients came to be heard, and the Commission limited the Hearings to 49 patients. Then, in their report stated that I had taken only 49 patients to be heard! They stated that x-ray reports were not acceptable for diagnosis, and that the 49 doctors had made wrong or mistaken diagnosis.

It is a sad state of affairs if doctors can diagnose an affliction as "Cancer" and send the patients home with a few months (at most) to live, if they are not sure. In the 49 cases examined by the Commission, the majority had been diagnosed by more than one physician. Some of them had three or four doctors, and were told they had cancer, and were treated for malignancy before coming to me for ESSIAC treatment.

The Cancer Commission at the Hearing admitted that every patient presented had benefitted or been cured by ESSIAC: many of them with pathological findings and reports, but they said the doctors had been mistaken in diagnosing the cases.

Over 300 patients were waiting to be heard but the Commission stated they had seen enough to give a report.

The Cancer Commission made much of the fact that I had not furnished them with the formula of ESSIAC or with samples thereof. What they did not state was that I had been offering to the proper authorities for years my formula providing they would admit some merit for ESSIAC on the CLINICAL PROOF I presented.

I had offered to give it to them if they assured me that it would not be shelved (as was done with penicillin). So I did not give out my formula and they published the bald statement that "I refused to give my formula".

My files reflect hundreds of documented cases concerning the proven efficacy of ESSIAC with cancer patients, including many of the 49 that the Cancer Commission turned down for dubious reasons. I will give just two cases of patients who appeared before the Commission in July of 1939, and who were alive and well 20 or more years later.

Mr. Walter Hampson, Utterson, Ontario. Age 34 in Nov., 1937.
Diagnosis: squamous carcinoma of lip.
Doctors: Dr. Ansley, Pathologist; Dr. A.F. Bastedo, Bracebridge, Ontario.

After the pathologists report, Dr. Bastedo urged Mr. Hampson to go at once to have radium treatment as he had no time to lose. Mr. Hampson came to me for treatment and was cured. When he went before the Cancer Commission on July 4, 1939, with other patients, they listed his case as "recovery due to surgery". The only surgery he had was the removal of a small section for the biopsy which showed the cancer!

Note: Mr. Hampson was well on May 4, 1960.

Mr. Herbert Rawson, Bracebridge, Ontario. Age 48 in 1935.
Diagnosis: carcinoma of rectum, confirmed by x-ray.
Doctors: Dr. A. F. Bastedo and Dr. Kenny

Patient had a hard mass with sloughing and bleeding and great pain. When he refused surgery, Dr. Kenny gave Miss Rene Caisse a written diagnosis with permission to treat with ESSIAC. Treatments began in April of 1935 and the last of 30 was given on May 1, 1936, and a good improvement in weight. Patient was able to work during treatment period except for one month of rest. No trace of cancer found in 1936 when he was examined by Doctors W.C. Arnold of Ottawa, Herbert Monthorne of Timmins, Ont., and F. Greig of Bracebridge, Ont.

Note: Mr. Rawson died of a stroke on May 22, 1960 at age 73 .

In 1963 Mrs. Carline Donald died at age 79 - Mr. John McNee died at age 95 this same year. Both had been cured of cancer at the Bracebridge Clinic, but no doubt the investigators would now claim they never did have cancer. It seems the only cases they admit had cancer are the ones who died of it. In spite of all the research and conventional treatments.

One of the well-known cancer victims who was informed about my treatment was Lady Eva Peron in Argentina. The contact was made by the Honorable Godfrey A. P. V. Winter-Baumgarten representing THEOPOLIS, in Rome. The Honorable Winter-Baumgarten had heard the excellent results from ESSIAC and he wrote to Eva Peron on June 6, 1952, and to me on June 14. She did not take advantage of his offer to help her get ESSIAC treatment, and she died soon afterwards.

The Prime Ministers, The Ministers of Health and later the Cancer Commissioners and the Attorneys-General of Ontario received hundreds of letters and pleas from patients and their doctors regarding ESSIAC. Many of the 55,000 persons who signed the petition supporting the bill to recognize and legalize my treatment, also wrote letters. The Cancer Commissioners, backed by certain medical groups, were deaf to the appeals, and used the same biased interpretations of data as have been placed on other treatments indicated for cancer, unless limited to their approved surgery, radiation and toxic drugs. It is my honest opinion that if apple cider vinegar were found to benefit cancer patients, it would be banned from the public!