Ex-NDP leader Tom Mulcair featured at pro-homeopathy conference in Montreal

Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair's work for a pro-homeopathy advocacy group is raising eyebrows among critics who denounce the field as pseudoscience.

Mulcair told a conference in Montreal today that he's been using homeopathic remedies for about 30 years and feels the Quebec government should do more to recognize and regulate the field.

His presence was discouraging to Jonathan Jarry of the McGill Office for Science and Society, who says there's no scientific evidence to show homeopathic remedies work for any health condition.

Homeopathy is based on the principle that "like cures like " — a belief that a disease can be cured by ingesting a small dose of something that produces similar symptoms in a healthy person.

Proponents of homeopathy also believe that a product becomes more potent the more it is diluted — a principle that Jarry says flies in the face of basic scientific principles.

Mulcair, billed as a "patron" of the conference, acknowledges homeopathic products are controversial but believes government has a responsibility to ensure homeopaths are well-trained and patients have access to the treatments they feel work for them.