| FORCES
Manitoba President, Warren Klass
Response to Winnipeg Smoking Ban News Item (reported on Canoe news site - 02 May 2000) |
| The comments by the Chair of the 'Smoking Ban' Committee in Winnipeg, Councillor Mark Lubosch, as reported in this news item, are italicized; the responses of FORCES Manitoba President, Warren Klass follow. |
| Councillor Mark Lubosch (North
Kildonan), chairman of the city's committee on the elimination of
environmental tobacco smoke, says: "There
is no documented evidence there will be job or revenue losses."
Recently (22 March 2000) the B.C. Supreme
Court threw out a similar province wide smoking ban. In the decision,
Judge Sunni Stromberg-Stein cited economic interests regarding
business and workers. "When the impact is so significant as to
pose a risk to the private economic interests, and where the impact is
so onerous as to impose a policing function upon employers coupled
with severe penalties for non-compliance, then public debate is of
paramount importance." How real are the claims that smoking bans do not hurt restaurant and bar revenues in cities where it has been studied? Check these links: http://www.geocities.com/sfd-usa/estres19.html
Tell those 706 unemployed hospitality workers and 5 closed businesses in B.C. about there being "no documented evidence". Try convincing the people in Waterloo/Kitchener, Ontario while you're at it. "Second-hand smoke kills 60,000 people a year. Why would the hospitality industry support that kind of human tragedy? We are committed to eliminating that." Where and WHAT is the "documented
evidence" for this statement? Even the most extreme
sophists in the anti-smoking movement only claim a fraction of that
number. In fact the Environmental Protection Agency Report on Passive
Smoking 1992 (EPA), vacated by a court of law in July 1998, 'only'
claimed ".....ETS is a human carcinogen responsible for
approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually in the US nonsmokers."
Quite a difference between 3,000 and 60,000, - especially when the
real figure is 0. In this news item, Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray is quoted as saying, "Government can't regulate people's behaviour.", and Deputy Mayor Lillian Thomas (Elmwood), "Tobacco is legal and people have rights." Good to know that there's some sanity on Winnipeg Council regarding this issue, and not everyone has unquestioningly bought the 'Smoke Free' agenda. Warren Klass, President |