This was apparently in reaction to the procrastination of the Canadian government in deciding whether to exempt the implementation of Bill C-71 with respect to certain events currently sponsored by the Canadian tobacco industry. Bill C-71 in effect forbids tobacco sponsorship, and promotion.

MALCOLM MAYE'S VIEW Courtesy of the Edmonton Journal

The withdrawal of Imperial Tobacco is hardly surprising. The company said it had to make the decisions it did in order to give notice of its position to sponsored groups that must plan their events well in advance. Imperial is complying with the legislation that Parliament has passed. And it is unreasonable to expect these tobacco companies to keep putting out sponsorship money forever -- or until other sponsors come along, or the federal government starts heavy arts subsidies again -- if their promotional goals cannot be reached.

Has the tobacco industry made the antismokers happy? Of course not. Now the antismokers are screaming: "Blackmail! We will not be subject to that!"

Excuse me, blackmail about what? Isn't this what the antis wanted all along? As the old saying goes: "be careful of what you wish: you may get it!"

Obviously, the tobacco companies must rearrange their affairs in light of Bill C-71. And it is a responsible action for the companies to inform sponsored groups in a timely manner of decisions that may affect them. This Imperial appears to have done.

From the smokers' rights perspective, the flap over Imperial Tobacco's decision is excellent, because it fully exposes the schizophrenia of the antismoking movement. It does not take a rocket scientist to interpret the wishes of the antismokers, here. Since they know no logic or shame, their expectations are something like this:

"Look, tobacco industry, we really want to get rid of you by suing you, increasing the taxes on your product, lying to the people, and demonizing and taxing smokers but -- please -- don't disappear too fast.

"First, we need you to support all arts and sports events while maintaining the current level of employment for us, so we find replacement sponsors or -- failing that -- further burden the taxpayers by supporting those events with public money. So, who cares if we Canadians are already 600,000 million dollars in debt?

"While you kindly are doing that, we'll continue our antismoking propaganda, instigate the population against you, continue to spread false information, and make a lot of money and political fortune in the process.

"Then, when we are ready, you will be so kind to let us eliminate you, and possibly make your product illegal or impossible to use, while you will offer nothing more than mere protests as resistance. After all, we need a political scapegoat for our greed and political incompetence, and you are Big Bad Tobacco!"

If this sounds like a mental joke, well, it is. But this is exactly the simple-English version of what the antismokers and the Canadian government expect, and demand. Their insanity is exceeded only by their self-righteousness, for even an intelligent parasite is perceptive enough to undestand that it can't kill the host.

Intelligent hosts, on the other hand, are preceptive enough to rid themselves of parasites.

Last week the European Community decided to "phase out" the sponsorship of tobacco from sport events, even though this will happen over 7-8 years, allowing plenty of time for things to change -- and political waves to subside. Not too bad a result, considering that the evidence against secondhand smoke is false, and the death toll from tobacco use is a colossal exaggeration -- the Smoking Attributable Mortality charts are in fact nothing but computer- generated figures based on heavily biased assumptions with little link with reality.

Yet world governments are buying into U.S. lies under the pressure of a rabidly antismoking White House that takes every opportunity to push its insane agenda.

Many of us smokers who are sick and tired of antismoking social engineering and the capitulation of the U.S. tobacco companies through "settlements" would love to see some outright pressure tactics from the tobacco industry.

In times where the favourite sport of politicians seems to be slashing the tobacco industry and patronize smokers as poor addicts, while stating that they kill people through second hand smoke, the fact that Imperial's move has been interpreted as a pressure tactic is rather delightful.

It is our sincere hope that the tobacco industry worldwide will react and make the governments feel its weight along the following lines:

"You want do demonize us, and our customers? Well, all sponsorships around the world are cancelled. NOW. No phase-in, no negotiations. The sponsorships will come back only after the complete elimination of advertisement prohibitions, smoking bans, and antitobacco persecution. And if that won't cut it, then we will suspend production of tobacco altogether and overnight, and let all hell break lose."

It would be interesting to see how fast the "tobacco-related death toll" would be sized down to reality, and how quickly secondhand smoke would be proven harmless.

Power is useful only if used when needed, otherwise it just defines a fool. After so much beating and abuse, smokers welcome the reality check that Imperial's withdrawal provides for those smoking prohibitionists who want to get rid of tobacco and tobacco promotion, but think the gravy train of sponsorship can go on forever.

Gian Turci