The organization that licensed a Vancouver "natural health doctor" who claimed to cure cancer with herbal pills has faced a lawsuit for offering licences that don't legally allow their graduates to practice alternative medicine.
And a Burnaby-based college with the same management has also been ordered to refund the tuition of one of its graduates who found out he couldn't work legally in B.C.
"I went through an entire education and found out it was worthless," said Stephen Harvey, who says he spent seven years and nearly $70,000 getting an acupuncture diploma and licence from the Shang Hai College.
During his years of study, Harvey said he didn't think anything was wrong. When the school told him an acupuncture licence from the Council of Natural Medicine College of Canada would allow him to work, he believed them, he says.
But when he contacted B.C.'s real acupuncture watchdog, the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture (CTCMA), to let them know he was starting a business, he was devastated.
"They said I can't practice legally," he said. Facing a huge student loan debt, he had no choice but to get a job doing manual labour.
Kerrisdale-based "natural health doctor" Grace Tseng was also issued a licence similar to Harvey's. Tseng was recorded on CTV News's hidden camera saying she could cure cancer with herbal pills that cost up to $,2000 a month -- a claim doubted by medical doctors.
"Natural health doctor" is not a term recognized in B.C. The B.C.-government-sanctioned term is "naturopath," which describes a professional responsible to a regulatory body.
The director of the Shang Hai College, Sky Willow, refused an interview with CTV News on the ground that he didn't speak enough English. But on hidden camera footage, Willow speaks English to a CTV producer asking about becoming a student.
Willow -- known to the students as "Dr. Sky" -- told the producer that he offers courses endorsed by the Council of Natural Medicine College of Canada, which he describes as an established organization based in Ottawa.
"We are a member there," he says to the producer in the video. "They have an Ottawa, Canadian government trademark. It's nationwide."
When CTV News checked out the Ottawa address, it turned out to be a UPS Store, which forwards mail to the Shanghai College in Burnaby. According to documents filed in federal court, Willow is the principal of both organizations.
"The Shang Hai college and the CNMCC were in fact the same thing," former student Harvey said in an interview.
In the hidden camera video, Willow claims that he has the right to offer government-sanctioned alternative medicine licences based on the fact that he has a trademark on the terms.
"The government is the trademark office. They (the CTCMA) insist they are the government. This is not true," he says.
That's a claim the CTCMA disputed in a lawsuit in federal court in 2009. The judge issued an injunction that the council stop using certain alternative medicine licensing terms including R. Ac. (Registered Acupuncturist).
In the hidden camera video, Willow claims that in fact the lawsuit ended in a tie.
"They sued us," he said. "Three years later they got nothing."
Harvey made a complaint about his education to B.C.'s college watchdog, the B.C. Private Career Training Industry Association. Several months later, they told him they would order the Shang Hai College to refund his tuition.
But Harvey wishes officials had checked up on what the College was promising earlier.
"If someone had come in, and asked the question, ‘Are you doing acupuncture, do you think you'll be able to practice these skills,' I would have said yes, and that would have been the breaking point right there," Harvey said.
"But nobody did," he said.
For a list of regulated health professionals, visit the B.C. Health Ministry website
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jon Woodward and Mi-Jung Lee
Watch CTV News at Six for a live report from CTV's Jon Woodward
