Winnipeg Free Press

October 7, 1999

"Anti-smokers strike again"

Tom Oleson
Free Press editorial writer

All this talk of science and faith and fools and fanatics and frauds naturally lead us to Winnipeg City Council, a cornucopia of fantastic notions and self -serving schemes. In a bizarre scenario that sees pseudo-religious fervour married to bad science, council has been toying with the idea of an anti-smoking bylaw for Winnipeg that would ban the use of tobacco in all public places.

Those who support this intrusion into the lives of private individuals and business people in Winnipeg attempt to justify it on the grounds that smoking is bad for everyone, not just for smokers. Unfortunately, there is no convincing scientific evidence that second-hand smoke is harmful. The American "research" that has been used to justify anti-smoking laws in American and Canadian cities has been discredited as the result of evangelical anti-smoking researchers tailoring the evidence to fit their purpose.

Winnipeg city council, then, as it considers a ban the weed by-law, is left without any scientific basis for such an intrusion into the lives of citizens. It is left with only a pseudo-religious basis for such a ban:
» we do not approve of smoking
» the majority of Winnipeggers do not smoke, and thus no Winnipeggers should be allowed to smoke in public.

In passing such a by-law council could, in a single stroke, discredit both science and religion, a remarkable achievement. For the record, I smoke. I know it is bad for me and that I should quit, but I can also recognize meddlesome intolerance when I see it in anti-smoking by-laws that have no justification in science, and no force of religion behind them - exactly the kind of by-law that city council is considering.