West-end Macs store robbed
Wed, March 21, 2007, 9 a.m.
By SUN MEDIA
A lone man armed with a brick held up a Macs store overnight.
The robber entered the Macs Milk store at 780 Baseline Rd. just after 1 a.m.
this morning and demanded money and cigarettes from the lone clerk. The suspect
threatened the clerk with the brick before making off with a small amount of
cash and an undisclosed amount of cigarettes. He was last seen running behind
the store.
The suspect is described as a white male, wearing a dark blue or black winter
coat, grey sweater with a hood and blue baggy jeans.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Ottawa Police or Crime Stoppers.
http://www.ottawasun.com/News/BreakingNews/2007/03/21/3797736.html
Do you think the city of Ottawa should ban smoking in all public
parks?
Yes 39%
No 61%
Total Votes for this Question: 1274 March 22/07 10:52 AM
Yes 29%
No 71%
Total Votes for this Question: 3296 March 23/07 12:10AM
http://www.ottawasun.com/News/poll_results.html
Park your butt at the gate -ON
Thu, March 22, 2007
By SUSAN SHERRING
Admirers want to honour anti-smoking crusader Heather Crowe with tobacco-free
park
If Dr. David Salisbury has his way, anti-tobacco crusader Heather Crowe
will be honoured with Ottawa's first non-smoking park named after her.
Salisbury, the city's chief medical officer of health, says the details are
still in their infancy, but he's pleased with the concept.
What a fitting tribute.
And what a smart idea.
"That's the honour we want to give her," Salisbury said this week.
Let's hope the smoke-free park is the first of many.
"It's a start," he said.
Crowe became a symbol of the dangers of second-hand smoke when she was diagnosed
with lung cancer from her 40 years of working in a smoky Ottawa diner.
She eventually succumbed to the disease last year, but not before taking
her strong message about the dangers of second-hand smoke across the country.
Crowe began a campaign to bring in tobacco control laws that would protect
other workers. And she was hugely successful in delivering that message.
The attention took an ordinary woman -- who'd never smoked in her life --
and thrust her into the national spotlight.
INVISIBLE NO MORE
She became the first person to win a workers' compensation claim for injuries
from second-hand smoke. She was invisible no more.
When Crowe set out to spend what time she had left crossing the country,
speaking to all who would listen about why workers had to be protected from
second-hand smoke, very few were unaffected by her powerful personal story.
The first City of Ottawa smoke-free park named in her honour would be a wonderful
and fitting tribute.
Sue Jones, the city's director of bylaw services, said implementing the city's
smoking bylaw in public places became much easier after Crowe went public with
her disease -- and began her fight with workman's compensation.
"It's stopped being an enforcement issue; the bars saw what could happen and
began buying into it," Jones said.
She said city councillors have two options in trying to create a smoke-free
park.
They could simply declare the park smoke-free and hope park-goers honour
the distinction, or they could actually amend the city's park and public facilities
bylaw and designate the Heather Crowe Park smoke-free.
THE NEXT FRONTIER?
Banning smoking in the great outdoors isn't totally new to Ottawa.
You already can't smoke within nine metres of an entrance of a city building,
and you also can't smoke within Lansdowne Park.
Does this mean there are more parks to come?
Could all city parks be the next frontier for local politicians?
Only time will tell.
To date, city councillors have been reluctant to contemplate taking their
smoking bylaw too far into the great outdoors.
That's too bad, of course.
Doesn't it seem just a little ironic that banning smoking in bars -- where
patrons can choose to go -- was taken care of before city-owned parks?
These are places where parents and young children go to enjoy the outdoors,
go to play soccer in organized leagues, go to play baseball.
Minister of Health Promotion Jim Watson said yesterday he thinks a smoke-free
park named in Crowe's honour is a great idea.
"It would be an amazing tribute and a very positive move to have a park named
after her designated as smoke-free. It's only fitting and I wish them the best," Watson
said.
Kitchissippi Coun. Christine Leadman actively supports the idea and has been
working with others to find an appropriate park, one within Leadman's ward.
"I think that Heather was part of the community, and she touched a lot of people's
lives. She really affected people. She wanted to make a change, a really positive
change and that's something you want people to remember," Leadman said, adding
a committee looking at finding an appropriate park feels strongly the location
be within Kitchissippi ward.
"Heather lived and worked in the ward, all her affiliation was in the ward," she
said.
http://www.ottawasun.com/News/OttawaAndRegion/2007/03/22/3804252-sun.html
Smokes under fire
The Whig-Standard
Local News - Friday, March 23, 2007 Updated @ 11:26:25 PM
By Frank Armstrong Whig-Standard Staff Writer
The federal correctional service will decide next month if it will implement
a smoking ban at its 58 prisons, the Whig-Standard has learned.
Inmates, unions and Correctional Service of Canada employees have until today
to hand in the results of a questionnaire that will help senior administrators
decide if they’re going to turn the indoor smoking ban into a total ban.
“I think CSC realizes they’re on borrowed time,” said Howard
Page, a Millhaven Institution guard who has led the charge for smoke-free prisons.
The correctional service’s national executive is expected to meet sometime
in the second week of April to make a decision.
Correctional service spokeswoman Holly Knowles said yesterday the review was
planned when an indoor tobacco ban was implemented in January 2006.
“We were going to evaluate the effectiveness of the entire smoking ban
after one year,” Knowles said.
She said some “challenges” were identified under the existing ban
and they are the reason a new solution is being considered. She said she couldn’t
elaborate.
An indoor smoking ban was put in place Jan. 31, 2006, against the wishes of the
Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.
The union, which represents 6,000 prison guards, wanted a total ban and has complained
that inmates are still sneaking cigarettes indoors and that guards are still
having to inhale second-hand smoke.
“Despite the efforts of correctional officers since the new policy was
implemented in January, it’s virtually impossible for us to prevent it
from happening,” said Jason Godin, Ontario regional president of the Union
of Canadian Correctional Officers.
Correctional service commissioner Keith Coulter issued a notice to unions, staff,
inmate committees and others on Feb. 9, informing them that an evaluation of
the indoor ban had been completed and that the consultation would soon begin.
“The results indicate there have been some challenges and difficulties
with the implementation and enforcement of this policy in many institutions,” Coulter
wrote in the notice.
Page is aware that the correctional service pledged to review the indoor ban
after a year, but he said he thinks the consultation and relatively quick decision
promised may also have something to do with pressure from correctional staff
and the guard’s union.
In August, Page lost an appeal before a tribunal to refuse to work in Millhaven,
where prison staff testified inmates sneak smokes and pollute the air despite
the indoor ban.
However, Page and the guards’ union are set to go before a federal court
judge sometime in the spring to appeal the decision of the tribunal. The judge
will either send Howard back to the tribunal for another hearing or uphold its
decision.
At Page’s tribunal hearing last year, the adjudicator criticized the union’s
case because it didn’t provide any scientific evidence and expert witnesses
to back up its arguments.
Page said the union didn’t think such evidence was necessary because Health
Canada has made its position clear on smoking in the workplace.
This time around, he said, the union will be armed with hard data.
“I think the writing is on the wall and I think that’s why CSC is
moving,” said Page. “The federal court will either rule in our favour
or the next appeal hearing will rule in our favour.”
The hard data will include institutional tobacco sales, which show that inmates
continued to smoke almost as much after the indoor ban as they did before.
According to numbers provided by Page, inmates bought $541,000 worth of tobacco
in the six months before the ban and $527,000 worth in the six months after the
ban.
http://www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=456120&catname=Local+News
http://www.smokersclubinc.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2997
Norview smokers fight to light up
Daniel Pearce SIMCOE REFORMER
Friday March 23, 2007
Fifteen smokers among the home’s 178
residents have to go outside to light up
Norview residents told to butt out by the province are fighting back
with a petition calling for their smoking rooms to be re-opened.
“When you live in a house, you can smoke. Now you’ve moved into Norview,
it’s your home,” said Jack Murray, 72, a resident of the county nursing
home who is leading the campaign to petition Queen’s Park.
“I should be able to smoke as I did in my home.”
Norview on Queensway West opened less than two years ago and was built with
two ventilated smoking rooms for residents.
Since then, however, Ontario smoking laws have been tightened. The rooms don’t
meet new standards that call for a vestibule to help keep second-hand smoke
from leaking into hallways.
It means the 15 smokers among the home’s 178 residents have to go outside
to light up.
Murray’s petition calls for the Ontario government to “grandfather” smoking
rooms in long-term care facilities.
“People have to go outside. It’s so dam cold out there,” said
Murray, a retired factory worker who grew up on a tobacco farm near Lynedoch. “I
pay $2,144 a month to be here.”
Patti Moore, general manager of Norfolk and Haldimand’s health and social
services department, said the county has already turned down a proposal to add
vestibules to the rooms at a cost of $60,000.
Instead, an outdoor smoking area with a roof and a couple of walls is being
planned, Moore said.
She said the petition is unlikely to succeed because the province’s long-term
care homes lobbied unsuccessfully for the grandfathering of the rooms well before
the legislation was passed.
“Few if any homes across the province have any legal smoking rooms,” Moore
noted. “Quite a number of homes are designated smoke free.” (Julie
Rosenberg, spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion said 16
of the province’s 621 long-term care facilities have smoking rooms).
Sitting in his wheelchair outside the front door with a cigarette in his hand,
William Taylor, 72, said “no, not really” when asked if he minds
the change.
“It’s not so much me as older folks in their 80s and up. They can’t
navigate (their wheelchairs outside),” said Taylor.
For Murray the closing of the rooms is also an insult to the area’s
heritage.
“People don’t know what tobacco did for Norfolk County,” he
said, claiming it helped pave roads and provide summer jobs for university
students.
Even if it’s unsuccessful, the petition is worthwhile, Murray added. “Everybody
says ‘You’re just wasting your time. What’s the use?’ But
at least we’ll let them know we have concerns
http://www.simcoereformer.ca/News/295894.html
Jail smokes ban decision due in April *
UPDATED: 2007-03-23 03:35:41 MST
By CP
KINGSTON, Ont. -- The federal correctional service will decide next month
if it will implement a smoking ban at its 58 prisons, an eastern newspaper
reports.
Inmates, unions and Correctional Service of Canada employees have until the
end of Friday to hand in the results of a questionnaire that will help administrators
decide if they're going to turn the indoor smoking ban into a total ban. "I
think CSC realizes they're on borrowed time," said Howard Page, a Millhaven
Institution guard who has led the charge for smoke-free prisons.
Corrections spokeswoman Holly Knowles said yesterday the review was planned
when an indoor tobacco ban was implemented in January 2006. "We were going
to evaluate the effectiveness of the entire smoking ban after one year," Knowles
said.
An indoor smoking ban was put in place Jan. 31, 2006, against the wishes
of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers. The union wanted a total ban
and has complained inmates are still sneaking cigarettes indoors and guards
are still inhaling second-hand smoke.
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/National/2007/03/23/3812941-sun.html
Re: Nonsmoking Park -ON
I understand that smoking cigarettes is harmful to my health. Heather Crowe
inhaled second-hand smoke for decades and fell victim to the cancer that took
up residence in her body. That cancer never paid any rent or fees to its landlady.
It just persisted at slowly sucking every last ounce of life out of Heather's
beautiful bacon and eggs serving soul.
An outdoor park named in her honour is, in my opinion, a great way to recognize
her crusade against the ill effects of second-hand smoke. But a smoke-free
outdoor park?
I will not abstain from smoking in any outdoor park. Any area outside those
nine metres surrounding city buildings is mine as much as it is yours. If I
feel like having a cigarette in the open air, I will smoke it.
Sebastien Allard
(Their hearts were in the right place)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. David Salisbury knows full well that cancer is a multi-factor situation.
He also knows that nobody ever got cancer solely from second-hand smoke and
that includes Heather Crowe.
Thomas Laprade
Thunder Bay
(Keep talking. Maybe you'll convince yourself)
http://ottsun.canoe.ca/Comment/Letters/2007/03/24/3820574.html
Taxpayers seem resigned to tobacco, liquor increases
If you smoke, drink, or drive a car, the province has bad news for you.
Starting at midnight, tobacco taxes went up by $2 a carton, or one cent per
cigarette. That’ll bring in $4.3 million more for government.
Liquor prices will go up by 1.5 per cent sometime this year. User fees for
nearly all government services will go up by 6.8 per cent.
The news isn’t all bad. The province will increase the basic personal
tax exemption by $250, saving an individual $22 in 2007. By 2010, increases
in the personal exemption would save an individual $220 a year in taxes. The
province is also increasing spousal tax credits, along with dependent, disability,
pension and caregiver credits.
Students will get a break, too. Graduates who stay and work in the province
will get a $2,000 tax credit, up from $1,000. Students who stay and study in
the province will get another $500 tuition rebate, and the province is kicking
in $12.5 million to freeze university tuition at September 2006 levels.
The Canadian Cancer Society Nova Scotia division is “very supportive” of
the cigarette price increase.
“We know that any price increase is associated with a decrease in consumption
of tobacco, so tobacco pricing is truly an effective tobacco-control mechanism,” director
of programs Meg McCallum said.
Many smokers admitted they’d pay the extra $2 a carton.
“That’s not going to break me or make me quit,” Ryan Winters
said.
Natalie Ouellet won’t quit, either.
“When you’re 14, it might affect you, but when you’re 42 like
me, the decision was made long ago.”
Cindy Viner is hoping the price bump will give her incentive to quit.
“When I go and buy cigarettes, I’m disgusted with myself,” she
said.
Outside a Halifax liquor store, consumers took the news of a 1.5 per cent price
increase in stride.
“I don’t really like price increases, but overall, that’s not
too bad,” Saint Mary’s University student Chad Martin said.
“It’s not a huge boost, but it winds up adding up over time, but
(1.5 per cent) is not going to kill me yet,” his buddy Nick Brown added.
Carrie Mollon said the increase is not a big deal: “I’d rather
have the (1.5) per cent in my, but oh well, we don’t drink a whole lot.”
http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=18848&sc=89
No pressure on healthy coffee lovers to cut back -ON
Amy Norton, Reuters
Published: Thursday, March 22, 2007
NEW YORK - Coffee lovers who are in good health may have little reason to
cut back, at least as far as their blood pressure is concerned, a new study
suggests.
Because the caffeine in coffee and other foods can cause a shortterm spike
in blood pressure, there's been concern that coffee drinking may over time
raise the risk of high blood pressure. Studies, however, have come to inconsistent
conclusions.
In the new study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
researchers found that healthy women who drank upwards of six cups of coffee
per day were no more likely than abstainers to develop high blood pressure
over the next decade.
On the other hand, women who drank coffee occasionally or in moderation --
reporting anywhere from zero to three cups a day -- had a higher risk of developing
high blood pressure than the heavy coffee drinkers or the abstainers.
For men, the risk of high blood pressure did not significantly increase or
decrease, regardless of how much coffee they drank each day. However, men who
abstained did have a lower risk than any coffee drinkers.
Still, the effect was "relatively small," Dr. Cuno S. P. M. Uiterwaal, the
study's lead author, told Reuters Health.
Handing out blanket advice on coffee or any food is difficult, noted Dr. Uiterwaal,
an associate professor at the University Medical Center Utrecht, in the Netherlands.
But given the overall research on the effects of coffee on healthy people--including
studies that suggest health benefits, like a lower diabetes risk-- there seems
to be no reason to discourage them from enjoying their java, according to the
researcher.
"The general advice to healthy people, if any, would then be that there is
no argument for healthcare workers to advise against coffee drinking," he said.
Even if coffee drinking contributes to blood pressure elevations in some people,
Dr. Uiterwaal noted, studies have failed to show that it actually raises the
risk of heart disease in healthy people.
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/bodyandhealth/story.html
Tenant wants smoking snuffed -ON
Thursday,
March 22, 2007 - 00:00
Local
News - By Ian Elliot Whig-Standard Staff Writer
A potentially precedent-setting case that could make smoking in rental housing
grounds for eviction began in Kingston yesterday.
Montreal Street resident Sharna Sugarman appeared before the Landlord and Tenant
Board – formerly the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal – to complain
that smoke from the apartment directly underneath hers seeps into her unit and
is making her and her six-year-old daughter sick.
She is seeking to have her rent refunded since the downstairs tenant moved in
last November and is asking the board to order her landlord to alleviate the
problem.
The most likely way the landlord would do that, if the board were to make that
order, would be to tell the tenant to stop smoking and serve them a notice of
eviction if they didn’t.
Sugarman herself was served a notice of eviction by her landlords shortly after
filing the case with the board.
The notice, in which landlords Jeff and Mike Cole say they need her apartment
for a family member, is being appealed at the same hearing.
The issues raised by the case loom large, as hearing arbiter Brian McKee told
the two lawyers involved in it yesterday at the Montreal Street Legion, where
the hearings are held.
“If someone is in their own home, and they are not doing anything illegal,
what right do I have to tell them not to do it?” McKee asked rhetorically,
noting that likely is only the first such case the board will be asked to adjudicate.
“I think this is just the tip of the iceberg and I believe this will be
the issue of the decade.”
He noted that while an argument can be made about the degree of health damage
second-hand smoke causes, there is no question that it is not a desirable thing
to be exposed to.
“On the balance of probability, second-hand smoke is not good for anyone,
I think we can all agree on that.”
The quasi-judicial rental body has the authority to rule on the issue, as Sugarman
is arguing the presence of the smoke amounts to loss of reasonable enjoyment
of her home.
The argument is the same as if her neighbours were playing loud music or holding
raucous late-night parties.
“She is allowed to smoke in her own unit,” Sugarman said under examination
by lawyer John Done of the Kingston Community Legal Clinic.
“[The landlord] didn’t think he could make her stop.
“What I asked him to do is stop it from entering my unit. That is my airspace,
it is my home.”
In his opening remarks, Done made it clear that he will argue it is a landlord’s
duty to ensure tenants are not exposed to such substances as cigarette smoke
when they are not smokers themselves.
“Drifting second-hand smoke is hazardous to people’s health generally
and to children’s health specifically,” he said.
“The only way to stop the danger from the smoke is to stop the smoke.”
Since a new tenant moved below the two-bedroom unit Sugarman shares with her
young daughter, she noticed smoke coming through the floor vents of the old brick
building that had been converted into a fourplex.
The previous tenant had not smoked and Sugarman’s young daughter immediately
started complaining about the smoke after the new tenant moved in six months
ago.
It began waking her up at night, as it did Sugarman.
Sugarman said the smoke makes her feel ill and her daughter has developed a chronic
cough that was only relieved when the girl spent several days with Sugarman’s
non-smoking mother.
“It affects my daughter and her sleep, and she wakes up when she smells
it and I have to put her back to sleep again.”
Her daughter’s school attendance is suffering, she said, as she is up for
hours in the night and has to sleep late some mornings to make up for the hours
she is awake in the night.
Both she and her daughter have seen doctors about their exposure to the smoke.
Sugarman said she has known from an early age that she personally is allergic
to smoke although neither she nor her daughter has other allergies, such as one
to animals. They own two small dogs and until recently had a cat.
She even switched rooms with her daughter, giving the young girl the top-floor
loft bedroom furthest from the vents where the smoke enters the unit, but it
has done little good.
She said she complained repeatedly to the landlords, but testified all they did
was try a scented furnace filter and give her felt-like baffles to put over the
floor registers. She said they were ineffective.
Acting for the Coles, who are small landlords with no other properties, was lawyer
Tina Tom, who mounted an aggressive cross-examination.
She went in detail through the calendar Sugarman kept to note the days she smelled
smoke, her relations with other tenants and how much she had done to address
the problem herself.
She asked if Sugarman had bought a Smoke Eater, an appliance advertised as able
to clean cigarette smoke particles out of the air.
“I don’t think they work, I think they’re a rip-off,” Sugarman
responded.
“You’re concerned about your health and your daughter’s health,
but you don’t want to try anything that might work?” shot back Toms.
She also questioned how Sugarman could know if the smoke was coming from the
unit below hers, although Sugarman said she knew the tenant was a smoker and
the problem only began when she moved in. She said the problem was present when
she could hear the downstairs tenant moving around.
“It would be rude for me to peek through the curtains to see if they’re
smoking,” said Sugarman during one of several restrained but edgy exchanges.
“If she’s cooking, I can smell it.”
Toms also noted that the $685 monthly rent for the apartment included heat, and
wondered why Sugarman did not leave a window open all the time to air out the
unit.
“Doesn’t it make sense to you that if you can’t deal with the
smoke you allege is there, you wouldn’t deal with it at no cost to yourself
by opening a window?” she asked.
“It’s winter,” replied Sugarman.
The landlords themselves did not have a chance to testify at the hearing, and
Toms said they would not do interviews about the case before they have a chance
to present their side when the hearing resumes.
The hearing also raised issues of personal credibility, as Toms put forward a
tenant on the other side of the duplex who said she had smoked in Sugarman’s
apartment and Sugarman raised no objection when she visited her own apartment
and was exposed to smoke.
Sugarman denied the allegations under oath with the same vehemence with which
they were made.
There is a short but bitter history between the two that includes calls to police
and the Children’s Aid Society, plus a court-ordered peace bond between
the two and a court date looming.
Both lawyers suggested, under cross-examination of the other side’s witness,
that each woman was looking to discredit anything the other one said under oath
with an eye to introducing that evidence at an upcoming court date.
No ruling on the smoking case was handed down yesterday.
Because of the complexity of the issues and length of evidence that is expected
to be presented which may include at least one expert witness – McKee adjourned
the hearing in the late afternoon.
It will resume in Kingston next month and a full day has been set aside to finish
the case, a rarity for the board, which settles many cases in an hour or less.
ielliot@thewhig.com
http://www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/printable.asp?paper=www.thewhig.com
http://www.smokersclubinc.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4096
Town ends funding to aid bingo hall with losses
Published: March 23,2007
— With files from Canadian Press
LEAMINGTON
The town is ending its $2,500 a month contribution to the Leamington Bingo
Hall
The hall had received the funding for a year in return for its community services
board which posted council meeting dates and special events. The municipality
started the program to inform residents while helping the bingo industry deal
with losses since the countywide smoking ban started in 2003.
Brian Sweet, director of corporate services, said Monday there is no longer
a need to continue. He said it is worthwhile for charity groups to hold bingos.
His report to Leamington council said the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of
Ontario has allowed the bingo hall and the Sunparlour Bingo Association to
share in the cost of bingos and by May there could be a new bingo revenue model.
http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=9b817556-043e-4015-96a2-84e70c0607fe
Logic and and Science should Rule -ON
Re: Make homes smoke-free, March 21. (unedited version)
The tobacco control lobby is totally out of control and blatantly irresponsible
for their consistent efforts to turn gullible non-smokers against smokers. Depriving
smokers from their right to housing on the pretext that second hand smoke
drifts through electrical outlets or cracks in the wall and affects the health
of non-smoking tenants in other apartments, is not only unsubstantiated but
unethical and immoral. It is high time that society allows unbiased
science and especially common sense, rule. If second hand smoke was
such a serious health hazard, the baby boomers with smoking rates as high
as 50 - 60% that have inhaled both their own mainstream and second
hand smoke for decades, would be dropping like flies and our society would
not be so concerned about financially providing for them as they are expected
to live to a ripe old age.
Iro Cyr - Vice-President C.A.G.E. (Citizens Against Government Encroachment) www.cagecanada.ca
RE: Crowe Park
I read the article about honouring Heather Crowe with her own park. What a
fantastic Idea. I hope nobody at council or government drags their heels on
this at all. The sooner this takes place the better. Fantastic idea.
Jeffrey Tremblay
(Not everyone is convinced)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To ban smoking in an outdoor park is absolutely ridiculous. Rather than continually
beating down smokers, why not assist them in quitting?
Many, like me, would like to try some of the methods like accupuncture, etc.
but do not have the money.
The government is spending multi-million dollars on web sites and expensive
brochures on how to quit but there is no actual assistance.
Medications, patches, gum, accupucnture, hypnosis are all expensive.
The government should put its money where its mouth is to help smokers quit.
If the City ofOttawa is considering having hard-drug usage havens, why not
help smokers?
Stephen S. Harris
(Don’t give them new ways to spend our money)
http://ottsun.canoe.ca/Comment/Letters/2007/03/26/3835607.html
Anti-smoking zealots invent phantom fears
Published: Monday, March 26, 2007
The Ottawa Citizen
Re: Make homes smoke-free, March 21.
How predictable that Ellen Holmes of the Ottawa Council on Smoking and Health
is calling on Minto and "all city developers" to make their multi-unit housing "smoke-free." Obviously
tired of celebrating the already excessive bans on smoking in public places
in Ottawa, the Council on Smoking and Health is looking for new ways to justify
its existence by conjuring up new phantom fears associated with secondhand
smoke.
In her letter, Ms. Holmes makes a bold claim that the evidence regarding the
hazards of secondhand smoke is "irrefutable." I call on her to tell us what
the evidence is, without cherry-picking a few studies that support her views.
The decades of secondhand-smoke research have produced findings that are inconclusive,
even for research into risks for lifelong spouses of heavy smokers.
Ms. Holmes claims that the council receives complaints from tenants who go
to great extremes to shield themselves from secondhand smoke in their homes.
She might want to share with us how many such complaints are received and what
the real stories are: The paranoia and hysteria of a very few cannot justify
going after law-abiding people indulging in a legal activity in their own homes.
It is time to draw the line: Either totally ban tobacco use, or drop the theatrics
and half-truths being used in an effort to bully others into complying with
utopian views of a "public health" dictatorship.
David Wood, Ottawa
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/letters/story.html
Cancer photo too much -ON
On opening the morning paper (March 22), I was greeted by a picture of a
woman who's face was horribly disfigured due to cancer.
This anti-smoking campaign organization has stepped way over the line. Everybody
knows that smoking can cause cancer. So can drinking alcohol, pesticides,
drugs, pollution and much of the food we consume, but I do not need to see
pictures of the worst case scenario.
Smoking is a choice. Smoking is still legal. Save the shock for the movies.
This picture is not news but a cheap way to get attention.
Steven Browne West Lorne
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Opinion/Letters/
Farmers fume at Finley -ON
Daniel Pearce SIMCOE REFORMER
Monday March 26, 2007
Tobacco growers calling for her to resign over
failure to help them
Warning they are “dying a slow, cruel death,” angry tobacco farmers
turned on local MP Diane Finley in a placard-carrying protest in front of her
office Friday morning.
They blame her for not getting them a buyout and are calling for her resignation.
“We thought she was going to get the job done. Obviously she hasn’t,” said
Walsh area grower Jerry DeCarolis, who crammed the parking lot in front of Finley’s
office in a tense demonstration with other farmers.
“We waited for the federal budget (for an exit package). There was nothing,
a complete zero.”
Demonstrators carried signs that warned the Harper government it faces “war” with
farmers.
“They don’t give a shit about anybody in this riding,” said
farmer Jon Lechowicz. “If they did, it would have been addressed in
the budget.”
Growers blame their demise - the tobacco crop has shrunk by more than two-thirds
in less than a decade - on anti-smoking policies and increased imports of
leaf. They are calling for a buyout package similar to what tobacco farmers
in the U.S. and Australia were given by their governments.
Friday’s protest comes only days after hundreds of growers held a rally
in front of Finley’s office during which she was declared a “friend” for
her attempts to lobby Ottawa on tobacco’s behalf.
But many farmers now say they are desperate as spring planting approaches
for a season in which they will be allowed to grow about 10 per cent of their
quota - not enough, they say, for any of them to survive.
They had hoped the government would announce an exit program in last week’s
budget.
“I’m not going to grow this year, that’s for sure,” said
Turkey Point area farmer George DeLeebeeck, whose family has planted
a crop every year since 1948. “This is life and death we’re going
through.”
Lechowicz warned that he plans to start growing outside the current regulated
system, which requires farmers to own quota and sell through a marketing
board.
“If there’s not an exit plan, the government better be prepared for
the wild west,” he said. “I will survive by serving any
market I see fit. Many farmers are going to do the same.”
Eden grower John Stewart said he has heard a lot of farmers say they
too are willing to break out of the marketing board system.
“When a guy’s gotta put food on the table, he’s gotta do what
he’s gotta do,” said Stewart.
If that happens, however, they will be breaking the law and could
have their quota pulled, warned Rick Cerna, a director of the Ontario
Flu-Cured Tobacco Growers’ Marketing Board who attended the protest.
At the same time, however, Cerna of Aylmer agreed government must act now.
“These are desperate, desperate people out there,” he said. “We’ve
been led to believe all along that this program was achievable
and she (Finley) would do everything for us. It’s taken a year (of lobbying)
and we’re
no farther ahead.”
Many farmers, Cerna added, have hit a wall in which banks are refusing
to lend them any more money, making it impossible for them to plant another
crop.
“We’re dying a slow, cruel death. We’re slowly starving to
death.”
Finley could not be reached for comment.
http://cgi.bowesonline.com/pedro.php?id=305&x=story&xid=296145
http://www.smokersclubinc.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3533
* Knifepoint robbery probed by police
Windsor Star
Published: Monday, March 26, 2007
Police are investigating a knifepoint robbery that occurred Saturday at a
west-side Mac's convenience store.
Two male suspects wearing black ski masks, gloves and armed with knives entered
the business in the 3600 block of Matchette Road at 5:30 a.m. and threatened
the attendant before fleeing with an undisclosed amount of cash and cigarettes.
No one was hurt.
The suspects, who were dressed in dark clothing, are described as being 17
to 20 years old, each weighing about 150 pounds and standing about five feet,
eight inches tall.
http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=9f6cef26-b135-49fb-b2d8-af48df49f57c
* Support grows for smoke-free apartments -ON
Poll shoes 57 per cent of residents would support ban
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT Globe and Mail Update
First came smoke-free restaurants and bars. Then came workplace bans. Now,
support for kicking smokers out of apartment buildings is hitting home, quite
literally.
An Ontario anti-smoking group says polling it commissioned has found majority
support for banning smoking within individual residences in apartment buildings
or any other multiunit household in the province.
The Ontario Tobacco-Free Network, which had the poll conducted and will
release it today, says 57 per cent of those living in multiunit dwellings
would support such a ban.
Smoking is currently prohibited in elevators, hallways and other common
areas in Ontario, but not in apartment residences. The poll detected widespread
annoyance over second-hand smoke seeping into the residences of non-smokers,
with half of those surveyed saying they've had tobacco smoke odour enter
their units from elsewhere in their buildings, and 70 per cent of those saying
they're bothered by it.
The finding is believed to be the first public opinion survey in Canada
showing attitudes are hardening against smokers in home settings. Until now,
smokers have thought of their homes as sanctuaries where they could light
up in peace, but the poll suggests smoking is starting to be viewed in the
same light as other off-putting behaviour in communal settings, such as noise,
poor hygiene and late-night parties.
The pollster who conducted the survey predicted the next big move against
smoking will be in multiunit dwellings, with increasing pressure for buildings
to be designated as smoke free.
"What the research clearly shows is that you've got six out of 10 people
out there that, if you hang out a shingle that says smoke-free apartment
or condominium complex, you're going to have people decide to move into that," said
John Wright, a senior vice-president of Ipsos Reid, which conducted the survey.
The poll surveyed 1,800 people across the province who live in multiunit
residences, and is considered to be accurate within 2.9 percentage points,
19 times out of 20. It was conducted in November and March of 2006, with
the second round of questioning done to confirm the findings.
If the finding that nearly half of those living in multiunit dwellings have
had tobacco smoke enter their units was applied across Ontario, it suggests
about two million of the four million total residents are being exposed to
unwanted second-hand smoke, a known carcinogen, from neighbours.
The poll also found that 64 per cent of those living in multiunit dwellings
would choose, when looking for a place to live, a smoke-free building over
one where smoking was permitted.
The Ontario Tobacco-Free Network is a coalition of three prominent public
health organizations: the Canadian Cancer Society, Heart and Stroke Foundation
of Ontario, and the Lung Association.
Network spokeswoman Irene Gallagher said the health organizations found
they were starting to deal with a large number of unsolicited complaints
from members of the public about second-hand smoke drifting among residences
in multiunit dwellings. The health groups wanted to check how widespread
these concerns were.
According to Ms. Gallagher, the large number of respondents preferring not
to come into contact with smokers in home settings suggests an unfilled need
in the housing market. "There is a big demand in the market for smoke-free
buildings," she said.
Currently, there is nothing to stop landlords from offering smoke-free buildings
or having non-smoking clauses in leases, and some building owners in both
as have some new condominium developments.
The poll found that about one-third of respondents were bothered by smoke
from their neighbours and 6 per cent found the problem so annoying they either
moved or considered moving to get away from smokers.
A number of complaints have also been made to Ontario's Landlord and Tenant
Board, where some residents have sought to have landlords evict smokers using
legal provisions normally applied against those who create nuisances.
The finding of widespread health concern over smoking in multiunit homes
doesn't come as a surprise to Adrianne Schutt, a Peterborough resident who
lives in a small apartment building and has recently been bothered by smoke
from neighbours.
If there were a ban in Ontario on smoking in apartments, "I would be overjoyed,
absolutely overjoyed. It's incredibly unpleasant" to be exposed to second-hand
smoke, she said.
She lives in an apartment where the landlord failed to enforce an existing
lease provision banning smoking, something that irked her after two heavy
smokers moved next door and began smoking on a shared balcony, causing cigarette
smoke to drift into her unit.
"You shouldn't be subjected to something hazardous in your own home," she
said. "It's not 1930 any more. We know this [tobacco] is going to kill us."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070327.wxsmoking27/BNStory/
http://www.smokersclubinc.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4096
Majority Of Renters Support Smoke Free Apartments: Poll -ON
Tuesday March 27, 2007
You can't smoke at work.
You can't smoke in bars and restaurants.
You can't smoke on a plane.
Will you soon be unable to smoke in your own home?
It's a possibility, if a new poll is accurate.
An Ipsos-Reid survey by Canadian Cancer Society-affiliate The Ontario
Tobacco-free Network claims 64 percent of tenants in this province
favour the idea of banning smoking in apartment buildings.
At least 70 percent insist smoke from puffing neighbours in the
complexes is a serious annoyance.
The group believes the numbers speak for themselves and urge tenants to
do the same when it comes to trying to influence the policy in their own
buildings.
"We want landlords and tenants to hear there's this information," advises
Irene Gallagher. "This is a big issue. Second-hand smoke is a health issue.
There are 4,000 chemicals in secondhand smoke, 50 of which are carcinogens.
There are options."
Cigarette-free buildings already exist in Manitoba and in Michigan, and
both are said to have achieved some surprising levels of success.
"In our experience with hundreds of landlords, getting cooperation from
residents with voluntary smoke-free policies has been excellent," reports
Jim Bergman of the Smoke-Free Environments Law Project in Ann Arbor.
Renters are required to sign leases pledging they'll remain cigarette-free
before they move in. Violating that agreement could get them turfed out of
their own place. But that hasn't happened.
"There have been no problems and certainly no evictions," Bergman outlines. "When
it's a matter of free choice, people play by the rules. If they sign an agreement
saying they'll follow a smoke-free policy, they do."
A condo project in Vancouver has also attracted huge crowds who want to
live in a place where smoking is only a word, not an action.
"Neighbours tend to know when others are being un-neighbourly and not following
the agreed rules," relates Richard Morantz of Globe General Agencies, a landlord
out west.
But others argue the policy is not only unforceable, but could be opened
to legal challenges.
And many insist it's outright discrimination.
"We're against institutionalized policies that discriminate against smokers
where you have a major landlord in town that controls the majority of access
to rental units who would institute a smoke-free policy of that nature which
would clearly discriminate against smokers," argues Nancy Daigneault of
mychoice.ca, a tobacco industry sponsored organization.
"We did a similar survey on this back in the fall ... We asked non-smokers
specifically if they agreed whether smokers should be discriminated against
when seeking housing. Sixty-seven percent in Ontario said no."
The Network responds that it's not trying to stir up trouble between neighbours.
It just wants to get a dialogue going - one that's smoke free.
Poll Particulars
Asked: 1,800, many who already live in an apartment.
64%: would choose a smoke-free building over one where
smoking is permitted
46% have had tobacco smoke odour enter their unit in the
past 12 months from somewhere else in their building
The tobacco smoke odour usually seeps in primarily via the hallways (47%), windows
(41%), shared ventilation (21%), air
leaks (18%) and through bathroom or kitchen fans
(13%).
Of those multi-unit dwellers bothered by the smoke:
70% say it bothered them
14% either moved (4%), or considered moving
(10%), as
a result of the smoke
41% consider it a personal health hazard and 32% consider
it an infringement on their life and privacy
27% made suggestions or grievances to their landlord or
another outside agency about the smoke
60% who made complaints didn't get a response, while 30% were
told that there was nothing that could be done
16% of those with units affected by second hand smoke say
that they or someone in their household suffered from a smoking-related illness
or worsened condition.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
How can you make your apartment smoke free?
Convince your building owner it won't hurt their bottom line
Many condo or apartment building owners think that converting to a smoke
free policy will lessen the values of the property and discourage people
from moving into it. But experience in Michigan and Manitoba shows the opposite
may be true. Proponents claim the turnover is lessened and vacancy rates
lowered by the idea. And they insist it costs less to keep a smoke free building
maintained.
How do I institute it?
Cold turkey may not work. A phased in approach with a deadline is likely your
best bet. Start by banning smoking in common room areas. Send letters to
all tenants informing them of the change, along with an in-house survey asking
them if they would like to see it building-wide.
If some want it and others don't, another possible step is to make certain
floors "non-smoking" only. Take a page from Ontario's pit bull ban law. All
smokers who currently reside there can be allowed to stay, but new ones won't
be permitted.
What about legal challenges?
If you believe the folks in Manitoba and Michigan, there's never been a
single challenge launched on the issue. Smokers may complain about discrimination,
but instituting a no smoking policy isn't against the law.
What if it's violated?
Send them a warning letter, followed by penalties and fines. If they've
signed a no smoking agreement in their lease, eviction is a last resort.
Won't this engender bad feelings?
The majority of smokers aren't bad people. They don't want you or your kids
choking on their output. Most will take their smoking outside if the majority
supports the idea.
What if I can't get the policy in place and second hand smoke is
still bother me?
Check places in your apartment where the offending smoke comes in. Try to
seal it off if possible. According to the OTN, "if the owner-manager is not
at all supportive of these remedies, it's possible that a residential tenancy
official/tribunal could rule that drifting second hand smoke constitutes
an unreasonable disturbance and thus order some form of remedy.
"The remedy might include repairs to the building to minimize the drifting
smoke, permission to break your lease, or some other solution."
For more information, including a fact sheet for tenants and landlords, click
here.
For the other side of this issue from mychoice.ca, click
here.
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_9178.aspx
Total
smoking ban absurd (Cayman Islands)
Tuesday 27th March, 2007 Posted: 17:25 CIT (22:25 GMT)
I am a smoker and I fully support the idea that smoking should be banned in buildings and enclosed areas that
are to be frequented by the public.
I was born and raised in Victoria BC Canada , where we have a similar legislation.
But, to say that banning smoking in all covered areas is a good idea to protect
the health of the population is ridiculous.
If the issue is purely about cigarette smoke, then the purists that introduced
this legislation should stop using the health issue as a cover. The issue
is not cigarette smoke, the issue is air quality.
Any area where the air quality is not compromised by my cigarette smoke
should not be included in this ban.
Covered patios, for instance, are areas where smoking should be allowed
because the air quality does not suffer as a result of cigarette smoke. An
individual’s health is not compromised because they do not like the
smell of my cigarette. If that were the case, it would be better for you
to ban all combustion engines to protect the health of the population.
I find dirty, unventilated wash rooms repulsive, but my health is not compromised
by the smell. People that do not bath or, conversely, wear too much perfume
are repulsive, but I do not hear anyone proposing legislation on hygiene
issues.
Moreover, if health is truly the issue, then this all or nothing ban will
further compromise the health of smokers who are forced to smoke out in the
rain, on the roads, or standing in the ocean.
Do we now ban people with colds from entering public areas? Shall we implement
a zero tolerance policy on drinking and driving? How about running with scissors
or carrying umbrellas (I almost had an eye poked out once)?
Do my arguments sound silly? So does the idea that all exposure to cigarette
smoke compromises ones health. Might I remind the readers of this letter
that at one time we burned wood in fire places to heat enclosed areas, but
the human race did survive. If you are truly that susceptible to cancer and
lung disease, then perhaps you may need to take some more drastic measures
to protect your own health and quit blaming others.
Russell Haley
http://www.caycompass.com/cgi-bin/CFPnews.cgi?ID=1021023
Simcoe : Two Anti-Smoking Demonstrations Cancelled Due To Opposition
Newsroom on 2007/3/27 15:20:48 (216 reads)
Two anti-tobacco demonstrations organized by students of
Norfolk have been cancelled. 44 replica tombstones were to be erected tomorrow
outside Simcoe Composite School and Holy Trinity, to act as a memorial to
the number of people that die in Ontario every day from tobacco use. The
Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit's Youth Action Alliance received complaints
from both the schools and outside sources - because they felt it was tasteless,
and another blow to area tobacco growers. Youth Advisor for the local Health
Unit, Josh Daley, tells CD 98.9 they did not mean to offend or upset the
tobacco community. Daley says the difficult struggle local tobacco farmers
are having in their bid to secure an exit package may be making people extra
sensitive, but emphasizes the demonstrations were not being directed against
farmers. He says the Youth Action Alliance will be looking for a different
location to hold the demonstration at a later date. Tomorrow morning with
Kate Buick reaction from Holy Trinity Principal John Burroughs.
http://www.cd989.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=8136
http://www.smokersclubinc.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=515
Highrise smoke signals -ON
Wed, March 28, 2007
By TIM WIECLAWSKI, SPECIAL TO SUN MEDIA
Ontario anti-tobacco group says public opinion snuffing out smoking in multi-unit
dwellings
If controversy over a proposed smoke-free park in the city wasn't enough,
a new report from the Ontario Tobacco-Free Network has added more fuel to
the fire.
While the report claims that 64% of all multi-unit dwellers would choose
a smoke-free building over one that permitted smoking, the OTN is not advocating
a ban on smoking in apartments.
"We simply want to let landlords know that there are no economic repercussions
for going non-smoking," said Carmela Graziani, spokeswoman for OTN in Ottawa.
Francis Thompson, policy director for the Non-Smokers Rights Association
in Ottawa, says there is a significant demand for non-smoking buildings in
the city.
One of the most frequent complaints the association received over the past
two years is from non-smokers complaining about smoke drifting into their living
spaces.
"With more education about the dangers of second-hand smoke, and with smoking
being banned at most work places, restaurants and bars, people are realizing
that they just don't have to live with it anymore," said Thompson.
DIFFICULT TO ENFORCE
Bob Jarrett, general manager of finance for the CLV group with several apartment
buildings in Ottawa, said that the Residential Tenancies Act would make a smoking
ban difficult to enforce.
"At the moment there is nothing the landlord can do to restrict the rights of
tenants like that," said Jarrett "If there is a demand for that type of thing
in the city, people should get together and ask politicians to changes the rules."
Some city councillors say the move has been coming for a while, but others
have a problem with government intervening in the privacy of someone's home.
"The state has no business in the bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms or living rooms
of the nation," Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Gord Hunter said yesterday.
Bay Coun. Alex Cullen said the signs point to non-smoking buildings eventually
coming to Ottawa.
"This is inevitable," said Cullen. "Second-hand smoking affects people's health
and air quality in buildings is an issue."
Ron Penner, vice-president for Globe General Agencies, who manages buildings
in Winnipeg, Montreal, Edmonton and Saskatoon, said their buildings went smoke-free
in February 2007.
"The response has been overwhelmingly positive," said Penner.
Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman said yesterday he welcomes debate
but prefers any ban to be market-driven.
http://www.ottawasun.com/News/OttawaAndRegion/2007/03/28/3852602-sun.html
Aparment POLLS
:Should smoking be banned in apartments?
Yes 30% No 70%
Total Votes for this Question: 2480 March 28/07 4:40 PM
Yes 29% No 71%
Total Votes for this Question: 2578 March 28/075: 08 PM
http://www.ottawasun.com/News/poll_results.html
Should smoking be banned in apartment buildings?
Yes 49% No 51%
Total Votes for this Question: 4472 March 28/07 5:02 PM
http://www.torontosun.com/poll_results.html
Weak support for smoking ban -ON
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007
Written by Jim Birchard
Not much support for a ban on smoking in apartment
buildings or multi unit dwelings.
An Ontario anti-smoking group says a poll it commissioned finds strong support
for banning smoking in apartments.
The Ontario Tobacco-Free Network says in two Ipsos-Reid surveys last year,
70 per cent of apartment dwellers said smoke from their neighbours bothered
them.
The polls also show 64 per cent of multi-unit dwellers would likely choose
a smoke-free building over one where smoking is permitted.
However it appears a majority of callers to Bayshore Broadcasting totally
opposed to any ban on smoking in apartments.
http://www.radioowensound.com/news.php?id=3925
Time right for debate on smoke-free apartments -ON
The Canadian Press
TORONTO (Mar 28, 2007)
The time has come to debate whether smoking should be banned in some apartment
buildings, Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman said amid growing pressure
to curb the deadly effects of second-hand smoke in high-rises.
While Smitherman would rather see market forces drive landlords to declare
their buildings smoke-free, he said it would be worth having a discussion
about whether legislation would be necessary to back up any ban.
Premier Dalton McGuinty doesn't agree.
"That's not something we're considering, no," he said yesterday.
Smoking is prohibited in elevators, hallways and other common areas in Ontario
