Obedience Certificates Issued

Times Colonist Newspaper, Victoria, B.C., 06 February 1999 - Jeff Bell

Smoke-free businesses will join celebrations

Business types complying with the Capital Regional District's month old no-smoking bylaw have been invited to a February 15th coffee party at the Harbour Towers Hotel.

More than 700 invitations have been sent, said Dianne Stevenson of the CRD's Tobacco Free Task Force. The reception is meant to celebrate the CRD's success in "making clean-air history", the invitations say. Invited business people will be given certificates, Stevenson says.

The other side of the no-smoking bylaw debate made a little history of its own on Thursday when the biggest crowd to date came to the biweekly meeting of the ad hoc Freedom of Choice Coalition. Coalition members estimated the crowd at the Esquimalt Legion at more than 500.

The group included business owners, hospitality workers and the public, said Brian Mayzes of the Esquimalt Inn. He said organizers "passed the hat" at the meeting and collected $5,000 for the fund to help Sooke River Hotel owner Don Rittaler fight the bylaw in court.

Mayzes said the coalition has made its way onto the agenda of Wednesday's meeting of the CRD Board. Representatives will speak about the negative impacts of the smoking bylaw, he says.

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