Well, poor Master Sunray, where ever will you people smoke downtown when at work as of Thursday?
Quote:
OTTAWA (AFP) - Sweeping smoking bans will take effect at midnight Wednesday in Canada's two most-populated provinces, Ontario and Quebec, amid protests by smokers the prohibitions are unfair.
Most people here said they support the ban, according to reports, but some bar and restaurant owners who deem them unwieldy and a threat to their businesses, vowed to flout the new laws.
"Canadas adult smokers are tired of feeling powerless and voiceless as they are hit time and again with increasing taxes, more severe restrictions, and social stigmatization," lamented Nancy Daigneault, president of the smokers' rights association mychoice.com, on its website.
"No one is talking about turning back the clock to the 'smoke anywhere days' or forcing smoking on non-smokers, but a little balance and civility that allows for reasonable compromise would be nice."
The non-profit association boasts thousands of members and is funded by tobacco firms.
Quebec Health Minister Philippe Couillard told local media 75 inspectors are poised to descend on the province's more than 6,000 bars and restaurants at one minute past midnight to nab potential scofflaws.
Officials in Ontario, where many cities and towns have already enacted anti-smoking bylaws, promised less heavy-handed enforcement by giving out warnings for first offenses.
The new restrictions will forbid smoking in restaurants and bars, bingo halls, shopping centres, pool halls, bowling alleys, convention centres, private clubs, tents, churches and other indoor public places.
Violators face severe fines -- a few hundred dollars for individuals and several thousand dollars for businesses.
The laws will come into effect one week after a waitress who became a famous anti-smoking advocate in Canada, describing on television how she got lung cancer from second-hand smoke at work, died of the disease.
Heather Crowe was 61 years old. She was thrust into the national spotlight after she filed a claim with a local worker safety and insurance board and won.
It was the first successful claim for full worker compensation for illness caused by workplace exposure to cigarette smoke.
"People shouldn't have to go to work to die," Crowe noted in anti-smoking television advertisements broadcast across Canada and in parts of the United States.
Rocco Rossi, chief executive of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, said her efforts became "pivotal to the success of tobacco control reforms" across Canada.
Other jurisdictions in Canada have already implemented stiff anti-smoking laws.
According to Health Canada, smoking rates here have fallen steadily since the mid-1990s. About five million people or almost one in five Canadians still smoke
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For the record, I may (non-committal but succumbing to the act soon) be quitting smoking pretty quick as a prioritizing my needs and budget thing. I'm psyching myself up to that
Seems my budget works for internet and cable OR smoking, not both, but I need the net connection as an asset (plus just being connected to family and friends). I've been a heavy smoker since age 13 and am now 52. That's a total of 39 years smoking! ... I did quit for a week once in 1986 or so. I spend between $80 and $100 per month on tobacco and papers. I smoke approximately 1 package (50 grams) per week. That's a LOT of dollars on a wee bittie budget.
I know a lot of ex-smokers and most of them quit because of expense, NOT rules and anti-smokers pressuring them
MASTER R., ... is that little stick thing and narrow strip of "paper?" in your picture for making a sort of filter for your cigarettes?
Ma Yappy as a smoker or an ex-smoker would NEVER become an anti-smoking witch against smokers or businesses who cater to smoking customers, or workers who choose to work in them, through smoker-friendly establishments that gives the general public the freedom to choose to enter that establishment or not! As far as I'm concerned, entering a business establishment is a choice, NOT A RIGHT or a LAW and it's just another form of selfish discrimiation harrassment to try and force a business to cater to your preferences. Doublestandards are not democratic (that the correct word to use?) PLUS I do NOT see anywhere non-smokers or governments that make and enforce the laws offering to compensate for the losses and closures of businesses that fail, and lost wages for workers, because of non-smoking dictated rules inflicted on them without being given a choice. It's a selfish highhanded "my way or the highway action" that doesn't give a damn what it costs others for them to get their own way ... bullying is a good description of the behavior. (Yes, I'm very cranky about highhandedness these days and sometimes rant a bit)
Enough blah blah for now.
Karmen
