May 2026

WHEN A REGISTRY ISN’T A REGISTRY – CANADIANS ARE LESS SAFE

Two and a half years after HESA’s recommendation that a Canadian breast implant registry be established ‘as soon as possible’, Health Canada has quietly announced their registry, which ignores the unanimous, bipartisan recommendations of their oversight committee and is little more than a subscription notification service.

Breast implant registries based on voluntary participation have low enrollment rates. And breast implant wearers not subscribed to Health Canada’s updates/alerts might be unaware of any problem with their implants, which is unacceptable.  

There is strong pushback to the registry from advocates and medical professionals, including plastic surgeons and other specialists. 

Health Canada has a history of creating programs which appear designed to fail. And actions which demonstrate fealty to manufacturers, not the Canadian consumers they are mandated to protect. To Health Canada’s shame, their new registry is right on point with how they roll. 

• Health Canada created a mandatory adverse events reporting system that excludes the specialists and facilities that would contribute meaningful data.
• Health Canada created a breast implants registry based on a model shown to have low enrollment/participation, and that presents a false sense of safety. In reality, it leaves breast implant wearers less safe.
• Health Canada’s actions taken since 2018 feign strengthened safety and transparency, but do not address the most critical safety issue – the consequences to health of long-term exposure to silicone/silicone migration.

Health Canada’s information page on the registry includes a quote from producer Julie Snyder, who states that after her documentary aired, the Minister of Health decided to ‘move quickly’. 

One would hope HESA’s recommendations following the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health’s ‘Study on the Oversight of Breast Implants’ which urged the creation of a mandatory ‘opt-out’ breast implants registry as soon as possible, might have spurred the former and the current Minister of Health to establish the registry expeditiously.

In contrast to the quotes cited on Health Canada’s website in support of their registry, the following quotes are from advocates and doctors who gave expert testimony at the HESA meetings, and the former vice-chair of HESA, who strongly oppose the voluntary ‘opt-in’ registry model. 

Note: all but the last quote are from a CBC News article, May 06, 2026, in response to Health Canada’s announcement of their voluntary / ‘opt-in’ breast implants registry. (Link to the article provided at the end of this document)

QUOTES:

Dr Jan Willem Cohen Tervaert – University of Alberta professor, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry; medical specialist in internal medicine, rheumatology, nephrology, clinical immunology: 

“That means only about 10 to 15 per cent of patients will register. So that’s not a lot,” “So it’s more or less useless because the major goal of the registry is, firstly, if there is a disaster that immediately all the patients can be tracked down.”

Dr Peter Lennox – Plastic Surgeon (BC); UBC professor:

“the least effective for any use,” (referring to the model Health Canada has chosen), and that most countries with successful registries preferred an “opt out” model.

Terri McGregor – patient advocate; breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma survivor (BIA-ALCL):

“This opt-in, voluntary registry is the worst decision Health Canada could have made from the point of view of patient safety,” “Health Canada should be embarrassed. They did the complete opposite of what their oversight committee suggested they do,” “The biggest beneficiary of an opt-in registry is the manufacturers. They are completely off the hook. They are the ones celebrating today.”

Bloc Québécois MP Luc Thériault – was vice-chair of the House of Commons standing committee on health from 2019 to early 2026:

“This in no way answers the very clear and unanimous recommendations made by our oversight committee,” he said. “How do we even know that plastic surgeons will inform women properly? It puts the entire responsibility on women to inform themselves, when this is on Health Canada.”

Julie Elliott – patient advocate; Canadian representative Breast Implant Safety Alliance (BISA):

“The Standing Committee on Health, HESA, is multipartisan, the recommendations were unanimous, the model registry provided for the participation of manufacturers and surgeons, a complete and compulsory informed consent, and the recognition of the disease related to breast implants. Obviously, the Federal Health Secretary has ignored all of these recommendations.”

** END QUOTES **

Health Canada boasts a list of ‘Quick Facts’ on the registry page:

• In 2025, more than 7 million people visited the Government of Canada’s Recalls and Safety Alerts website, reflecting strong public engagement with safety information.
• Each year, up to 2,000 recalls and safety alerts are published on the website, covering a wide range of food, consumer, and health products.
• Since 2015, there have been 14 recalls and safety alerts related to breast implants.
• More than 130,000 people are subscribed to receive recall notifications, and in 2025 alone, the system issued over 30 million emails to keep Canadians informed.

Only one of the four ‘quick facts’ relates specifically to breast implants. It would be more relevant to know Health Canada’s reach to breast implant wearers, which we suspect is limited. 

In May 2026, there are Canadians with recalled breast implants associated with multiple cancers who are still unaware their implants were recalled, despite current public engagement on the Government of Canada’s Recalls and Safety Alerts website.

Health Canada’s sense of its accomplishments often differs from the perception of advocates. Their actions related to the breast implant registry and mandatory adverse events reporting system are antagonistic to critical long-term safety data ever being available, ensuring manufacturers’ ability to continue harming implant wearers for further decades. 

With this sham of a registry, Canadians with breast implants are less safe. In my opinion, such poor judgment by Health Canada and the Minister of Health must be investigated to determine how this has been allowed to happen.

CALL TO ACTION:
We’re calling on Canadians opposed to Health Canada’s voluntary ‘opt-in’ registry model who feel the registry model must be a mandatory ‘opt-out’ registry, which also includes everything placed within the breasts at the time of surgery, to phone, email, text, or write snail-mail to their Member of Parliament. 
** Note: Letter template and e-mail addresses of MP’s are available **

Link:CBC news article – 
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/breast-implant-registry-health-canada-9.7190465

Link: Health Canada’s registry announcement –
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/news/2026/05/canada-introduces-a-new-voluntary-registry-for-breast-implant-recalls.html