Victoria Freedom of Choice CoalitionVictoria Freedom of Choice Coalition News Release - 18 January 1999 - Victoria, B.C., Canada Note: This Coalition needs help. A legal challenge to the 'Clean-Air' bylaw (no public smoking) has been initiated. These people are fighting for all of us; what's happened in their region will be in your area next if this public health experiment succeeds here. See donation information following this article.(tax receipts available upon request) The 'Freedom of Choice Coalition' is a group of British Columbia businesses, associations and private individuals concerned with ever increasing government intervention and social engineering. Most particularly the recent implementation and attempted enforcement of the Capital Regional District's so called Clean Air Bylaw. We are concerned about: » the negative economic and social impact of the bylaw with specific information gathered over the first 17 days, » the campaign of mistruths and misinformation being carried on by the CRD's propaganda machine, » concerns over the misuse and misdirection of tax dollars on the attempted enforcement of the bylaw, » the moving ahead with the existing B.C. Supreme Court challenge against Bylaw 2401. This is what we have to say. It's Not Working, and it's Not Fair. Prohibition has failed in Victoria. Despite what you may have heard from CRD bureaucrats, the smoke ban is NOT working. The claim that there is 80 to 90 percent compliance is a bald-faced lie. There is widespread non-compliance. The roving packs of ashtray police are often targeting establishments where they know there is compliance and except for a couple of media hits, they stay away from establishments that are allowing courtesy of choice. For example they have visited Smugglers Cove Neighborhood Pub in Cadboro Bay at least five times, even though they were fully aware that this pub agrees with, and has been enforcing the bylaw since day one. In contrast many local nightspots have never been visited. And in many cases where the ashtray police have visited establishments where smokers are present, they have taken a hike rather than face confrontation. This is not a level playing field. The CRD are not policing the bylaw FAIRLY. They are seeking out the media hits, and the bingo grannies. They are picking targets, and choosing the easiest tickets to write. This bylaw is a personal, bureaucratic agenda by a few anti-smoking zealots. Facts, economics, tourism, and the real world do not come into play. We find it abhorrent that, by our calculations, the CRD will be spending at least $3 million dollars to pay for smoke police and their propaganda campaign. The CRD's misinformation campaign constantly talks about how a similar prohibition is working wonderfully in California after its first year. Not so. A recent survey reported in the Los Angeles Times, states that non-compliance in the hospitality sector runs between 30 and 50 percent and that over 60% of owners, managers and employees in that sector are unhappy with the law. Stanwick (Dr. Richard Stanwick, Chief Medical Health Officer, CRD) states that secondhand smoke kills people. According to a 1995 US Congressional Research Study, the odds that a nonsmoker will die from secondhand-induced-lung cancer are about the same as those from dying from electrocution or drowning. Even nonsmokers who live with smoking spouses are more likely to be killed in a homicide than they are to die from someone else's smoking. The first hit on tourism has come to our attention. A Toronto softball team that is to participate in the Canadian Slo-Pitch Championships in Victoria this summer has phoned to re-book their accommodation in Duncan. The writing is on the wall for a huge downturn in tourism once the word gets out. Even Victoria Mayor Bob Cross has publicly stated his fear that this bylaw will decrease city revenue from tourist dollars. All in all the CRD's ashtray police and misinformation propaganda campaign is a disgraceful misuse of tax dollars and human resources. Particularly disgraceful is the lack of respect for veterans, seniors and those who are facing health problems. For example, the waiting list for a MRI or the situation at the Victoria Hospice. The immediate economic impact of this assault on our freedom has already been demonstrated. A quick survey of 1 lounge, 1 service club, 2 pubs and one major restaurant tells a frightening story. Sales of food and liquor are down from last year approximately $25,000, with at least a dozen layoffs pending or having taken place. Coffee shops and small restaurants are reporting losses that may force them out of business. This is during the quietist time of the year. Suppliers and services of this industry will be next to feel the pinch. Victoria region charities that rely on the proceeds from bingo halls will be hit hard. Bingo players are driving to Duncan where there still is freedom of choice. The politicians at the CRD who voted this bylaw into existence must listen to the people not an Angus Reid poll that sampled only a few hundred people. The CRD has received nearly 10,000 postcards in protest of this law. These voters have been ignored. The reality here is that businesses are suffering. People are afraid to come out to a bar - for fear of being assaulted by a gang of over-zealous public servants. For fear of being made part of a media spectacle. Let's at the very least put this bylaw off until the WCB can make clear its plans for the year 2000, and we can get on with the business of welcoming tourists for the summer season. The Court Case will continue. We never wanted to go to court. But our case against the CRD will continue. And the cases of all those people who have been ticketed will eventually head into court, clog them up further, and take the focus away from what our justice system should really be focussing on - prosecuting criminals, murderers and thieves. But no, the CRD thinks that the real criminals are the working men and women who like to have a pint after a hard day's work - and maybe enjoy a little legal tobacco product. The Coalition supports those over 300 hospitality businesses that already provide a smoke free environment and may there be many more. But not through an ill-conceived economically punitive law, but through freedom of choice, as granted by the Canadian Constitution. LEGAL ACTION costs money. Please show your support by donating (tax receipts available) to: Victoria
Freedom of Choice Coalition in Trust or send directly to: The Esquimalt Inn For further information contact: Tel: (250) 386-2152 Fax: (250) 386-4313 Email: anna@islandnet.com Victoria Freedom of Choice Coalition **** |
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