Canadian Smoking Ban

The Canadian smoking bans have been so wide reaching that they have been labeled amongst the most illiberal restrictions in any democratic society, with various provinces banning certain aspects of outdoor usage and product display.

Federal measures include graphic displays on cigarette packets detailing so called smoking related diseases; the use of emotional blackmail and subliminal messages with images of children has taken over as the weapon of choice in the federal Governments victimisation of smokers.

History of the Canadian smoking ban

Section 115 of the Municipal Act 2001, gave powers to municipalities to pass bylaws regulating public smoking. As a result cities and provinces within Canada have enacted smoking bans at differing times since 2001 when the country's capital city, Ottawa along with Toronto banned smoking in all public places including restaurants, bars and bingo halls.

The various provinces within Canada have each enacted smoking bans of Orwellian proportions. Some of the most draconian laws anywhere in the world have been implemented, for example; Newfoundland and Labrador introduced a law in 2002 making it illegal to smoke in any indoor space in front of minors, these laws were tightened in 2005 because many 'public places' banned minors in an effort to survive. Nova Scotia announced fines at a MINIMUM of $2000 for the offense of smoking in a no smoking area, a ban on displaying tobacco in stores, powers to seize tobacco from people under the age of 19 and a total ban on smoking in prisons, smoking is also banned on outdoor public patio areas. In Quebec it is illegal to smoke within 9 meters of the doorways of many public buildings and is also illegal to sell tobacco by mail order or over the internet. Saskatchewan has fines of up to $10 000 for smoking in a no smoking area.

The medical case of Heather Crowe, a non smoking restaurant worker with lung cancer was held up by the anti smoking movement as proof of an actual disease caused by ETS which mirrored the later case of Monica Crema in Italy. Heather Crowe happily gave lectures and appeared in TV adverts and radio shows for the anti smoking movement giving emotional calls for smoking bans and quickly became the movements chosen spokesperson following a successful claim for loss of earnings and health care costs from the Ontario Workplace Safety & Insurance Board.

Despite living for several years with her illness and making speeches and appearances around the US, Canada and the UK Heather Crowe never made a claim for damages against the tobacco industry; with over 40 known causes of lung cancer and no medical procedure available to test for ETS effects such a claim would have been doomed to failure. Her diagnosis and other medical records have never been made public other than a statement from an undisclosed doctor that she had a "smokers tumour" which is a completely made up disease. As with the Monica Crema case these events and claims can only be viewed as propaganda from a movement desperate to show harm to someone for the purposes of driving public emotions towards supporting legislation against smoking.

Effects of the ban

Hospitality losses in Canada after smoking ban implementation is comparable to other countries around the world with the most comprehensive study showing losses between 18% and 25%. The Pub and Bar Coalition of Canada study was conducted by Professor Michael Evans PhD, Professor of economics and former advisor to the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, The U.S. Senate Finance Committee and the U.S. Treasury; the study was verified by Wade Cook PhD, Associate Dean of Research, Schulich School of Business.

Professor Evans concluded, "Government data clearly demonstrates smoking bans materially reduce sales in bars and nightclubs. The evidence is quite clear."

As one of the first nations to implement draconian smoking bans with the complete removal of any choice for smokers Canada suffered heavily in the area of tourism. According to Canada's National Statistical Agency the country has seen drops in international tourism since bans were first introduced in 2001 by up to 50% in some areas with an average national drop in international tourism of 24%. Although anti smoking advocates attempted to blame these losses on the poor economy it is clear that such losses cannot be attributed to that given the fact that inflation has never had such a devastating effect on tourism in the past.

Compliance with the legislation

Despite the threats of huge fines for both users and business owners non compliance with the legislation has been reported by the tobacco control authorities at around 5%.

Some areas have boasted support for the legislation as high as 90% which has led to the question - if so many people want smoke free bars why was it necessary to spend hundreds of millions of dollars implementing and enforcing a ban?

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