From time to time, AI-generated videos appear on social media showing world leaders taking part in an ayahuasca ceremony to temper their egos and belligerence — and, touched by the grace of the Great Spirit, making peace as brothers and sisters and finally banishing their greed and thirst for power.
This doesn’t look likely to happen any time soon, but every journey begins with a first step. One such step is being taken by the Companionship for the Sacred Vine (CSV): organizing a free ceremony so that Canadian politicians can experience the Amazonian sacramental brew first-hand.
Another Ayahuasca is Possible
“Parliament Hill Ayahuasca Ceremony,” reads the flyer circulated by the Canadian organization, illustrated with a photo of Parliament Hill — the government building in Ottawa where Canadian laws are made. The QR code accompanying the invitation leads to an Ayahuasca Guide for Politicians, developed by the organization itself, which aims to help legislators work toward fair and reasonable regulation of a practice that has become widespread in Canada, as it has across most Western countries.
“One of the big problems with ayahuasca in Canada, or anywhere, is political — the regulations aren’t keeping pace with the medicine. So how do you educate regulators? By inviting them to a ceremony,” says Allan Finney, founder of Ayahuasca Canada, a highly experienced ayahuascero and the most prominent activist around the plant in Canada.
The Companionship for the Sacred Vine
We first met Allan in 2023, when he had just founded the Companionship for the Sacred Vine. The goal of that initiative was to allow the legal importation of ayahuasca into Canada — a privilege until then exclusive to the ayahuasca churches Santo Daime and UDV, a legal situation similar to that which exists in Spain. It is worth noting that ayahuasca (“daime” or “huasca”) is considered a sacrament by those churches.
Politicians who agree to take part in the ceremony must fill out a short form on the Ayahuasca Canada website. “If they’re interested, they would need to be trained, to learn how to prepare for a ceremony, the safety protocols, to learn how competent our facilitators are,” Finney explains, “and politically, the process of obtaining an exemption from Health Canada. That would also highlight just how dysfunctional that process is.”
Allan Finney (left), during an ayahuasca retreat in the Peruvian jungle.
The process Finney is referring to is the one CSV has been navigating since 2023, detailed in the following document: How Spiritual Healing is Actively Surpressed in Canada [.pdf]. In July 2023, CSV became the first shamanic group (outside of an organized church) to receive approval — then Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos granted the exemption to CSV. However, since then, “CSV has not been able to import a single drop of ayahuasca because bureaucrats found a way to nullify the exemption by refusing to approve a legal ayahuasca supplier,” rendering the minister’s decision meaningless.
The Legal Status of Ayahuasca in Canada
In Canada, the importation, possession, sale, distribution, or administration of ayahuasca is illegal, according to the ICEERS Foundation. Unlike in countries such as Spain, this prohibition applies not only to DMT but also to harmalol and harmaline, both listed under Schedule III of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act of 1996.
Despite this severe prohibition — which has even barred renowned researcher Gabor Maté from conducting clinical trials with ayahuasca — since 2015 the Liberal Party has allowed exemptions from that legislation for at least five ayahuasca churches across the country. This path was opened by Céu do Montréal in 2017, and followed by three other congregations of the same doctrine across the country during 2019.
The Companionship for the Sacred Vine came close to becoming the first non-religious entity to obtain a legal exemption to import ayahuasca into Canada, but that attempt ultimately fell short. Perhaps the country’s decision-makers will have a change of heart once they feel ayahuasca in their own souls.
With information from Ayahuasca Canada, ICEERS, and Plantaforma.
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