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April 2005
TOBACCO NEWS FROM CANADA Comments by Warren Klass President, FORCES - Canada “Genius is the ability to say in 10 lines what everyone says in a book. And what everyone doesn’t say in a book.” Nietzsche I am breaking with the usual Forces Canada east to west format this time to showcase the work of pure genius from a Voice of the People contributor from Grand Prairie; Alberta. The author Alan Ritchie emphatically stated he wanted his name used. There is also a very good Voice of the People contributor from Ottawa. If you feel you have something to say to your fellow Canadians-and can say it in a few lines-mail your submission to: warren.klass@3web.net or wklass44@yahoo.com .I will omit names, but please remember to include your city and province. Before I get to the tobacco news from across Canada, there are a few bits of election news worth reporting that was not on the front page of your local newspaper. If I were not intending to showcase a Voice of the People in this issue, I would have two I TOLD SO YOU Datelines, one from Montreal and one from Winnipeg. The Montreal I TOLD YOU SO story involves the admission by Alphonso Galliano on the CTV National News with Lloyd Robertson that the story of the appointment of Liberal Party lawyers to Judgeships was true. The I TOLD YOU SO story out of Loserpeg involves the Liberals “INVESTING” $100 million dollars in a monument to Dead Jews from Rich Jews (The Aspers, owners of 60% of the newspapers in Canada and Global TV Network). Buried in the back pages of the Winnipeg Free Press is the story: Museum backers tried to bill feds for perks. Limos, movies, gourmet coffee among rejected claims. The following is an excerpt from the Winnipeg Free Press:
Dateline - Grand Prairie, Alberta-Voice of the People
Dateline - Prince Albert, Saskatchewan,
Lac La Ronge Indian chief Tammy Cook-Searson told CBC: ”We realize it’s a health issue to allow smoking. But we realize too that if we don’t do something else we’re going to shut down our bingo hall.” Dateline - Toronto, Ontario
We’ve seen this all before. Two anti-smoking PARASITES blabbing on endlessly about second-hand smoke and smoking bans, complete with some Hitler Youth kid out of anti-smoking central casting with a sob story. The correspondent writes:
Dateline - Ottawa, Ontario-Voice of the People
Last election I refused to vote for anyone supporting anti-tobacco views. I ended up voting for a Libertarian candidate. Maybe if smokers take a similar view, we can elect a few alternative candidates, and send the mainstream parties a message that we are sick and tired of their style of government.” Due in no small part to the massive influx of stories coming out of Toronto, this will be a special Forces Canada issue dealing with Dolton’s Show trial-public hearings on the proposed Ontario smoking ban. There is course other, important tobacco news from the ROC-Rest of Canada. The Liberal Party ‘s latest scandal involving the questionable appointment of Judges in Quebec (Gomery), and more Indians opening up more smoker-friendly venues in Saskatchewan, will have to wait for the next issue. For the past year, Forces Canada regularly made some extremely harsh comments about some of the more bizarre judicial rulings coming out of Quebec. I am proud to say that I feel TOTALLY VINDICATED IN MY SUSPICIONS. The Canadian Public, really for the first time, is starting to get a good look what the Liberal Party of Canada put on the Bench-and how the appointment of these judges were just another part of a corrupt pattern of patronage and kick backs in Quebec by the Liberal Party. As Yogi Berra once said:” There are too many co-incidences for this to be a co-incidence.” The endless antics of these clowns in Judges robes hiding behind the charter when expedient- makes the use of the Notwithstanding Clause a necessity for future governments. If you want to be included in the Voice of the People Dateline - please do not send attachments. I am not very computer literate and have great difficulty opening them. Forces Canada is not the New Yorker. I have a limited amount of space, so please keep it brief. Send election thoughts to: warren.klass@3web.net or wklass44@yahoo.com .Due to possible retaliation I will omit names, but please include your city and province. As to be expected Dolton’s Show Trial and the increasingly lunatic ranting of Dolton’s economic Girlie-Man Health Minister Smitherman dominated media coverage in Ontario. This special edition will try to make sense of what is going on in Ontario. Dateline - Toronto, Ontario
Dolton’s Health Minister and economic girlie-man George Smitherman quoted in the Toronto Sun in response to predictions that an Ontario smoking ban will cost 50,000 jobs and 1 Billion in sales to Ontario’s largest employer.
While the always intellectually challenged Smitherman can’t see a cause and effect between the potential losses of thousands of jobs and the closings of hundreds of businesses and the smoking ban, he has no trouble creating a bogus cause and effect on smoking’s so called burden on society. Smitherman put the cost as: 44 deaths a day and $1.7 Billion a year. If that’s the real cost, why isn’t Smitherman leading the charge to ban tobacco in Ontario? Or is this putting this as bluntly as possible: MORE BULLSHIT FROM THE LIBERAL PARTY? People in their 70s and 80s die of multi-casual diseases and tobacco is just a convenient whipping boy, that keeps the Legions of Liberal Party PARASITES employed with six figure “Tobacco-control” salaries! Not surprisingly the Toronto Red Star, whose editorials never deviate far from the Liberal Party line, was supportive of Smitherman’s efforts. A sample:
He should be congratulated and the new study (detailing job losses) should be ignored.” The rest of the usual suspects in the Toronto media have been unusually quiet. The Grope and Flail has been too distracted urging Canadians to give the federal Liberals more time to weasel out of their scandals to pay much attention to Dolton’s Showtrial.The Grope and Flail confined its coverage to the plight of Ontario’s tobacco farmers. Canadian Press and the Toronto Red Star reported, howver, that Ontario’s hospitality industry feels just as deserving of compensation as tobacco farmers. Terry Mundell, president of the Ontario Hotel and Motel Association expressed his frustration to C.P.:
The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservice Association put out a press release stating that 700 businesses that spent between $15,000 to $300,000 installing Designated Smoking Rooms will immediately close their doors if Smitherman’s legislation is not amended. Even the usually, fanatically anti-smoking Toronto Sun columnist, Christina Blizzard had enough of the goofy claims from the Ontario Liberal Party. An excerpt:
Blizzard quotes Edgar Mitchell of PUBCO, as saying the smoking ban in just Ottawa, London, Kingston and Kitchener have caused the loss of $60 million to the hospitality industry and a corresponding loss in jobs. Extrapolated over the entire province those numbers become a $1 Billion loss to the hospitality industry and 50,000 lost jobs in Ontario. Edgar Mitchell puts a human face on the statistics. Despite being the second busiest bar in the Ottawa area, Mr. Mitchell closed his bar six months after Ottawa’s smoking ban. Mitchell stated:” As a direct result of the smoking ban, the Duke (opened in 1923) was closed. I had to layoff 40 people, some of whom had been working for us for 30 years and a quarter of whom are still unemployed six months later. I lost my business and they lost their jobs.” Blizzard’s column inspired the following letter published in the Toronto Sun:
Dateline - Toronto, Ontario-Voice of the People
Dateline - St. Thomas, Ontario
The St. Thomas Times Journal is reporting that a local bar called the Ale House is challenging the constitutionality of St. Thomas’ bylaw in court. The Ale House after a consultation with their lawyers has barred a private security company that enforces St. Thomas’ bylaw from entering the Ale House. The Ale House, by the way set a sales record in March. The Ale House owner, Alex Petro told the Times Journal: “Yeah, there’s still smoking. We’ll only enforce it to a point. We won’t physically evict people for smoking.” Petro claims that bars and restaurants in St. Thomas that went along with the smoking ban have seen a 25 per cent decline in business. Where do I begin? We in Canada are treated to the daily spectacle of the Liberal Party imploding. Believe me, it’s tempting for me to sit back and watch our enemies self-destruct before our eyes. But this would be unfair to history. It would be unfair to future generations of Canadians who will look back upon the past 12 years and ask in the words of Gordon Lightfoot:
Within the next several weeks, we will have the best chance in a generation to take back our country. I can’t promise you that on June 28, the whole $500 million a year Liberal Party Life-Style PARASITE INDUSTRY will be sent packing. But, a massive repudiation of the Liberal Party will be the first step in this process. I can promise you after a Liberal defeat, Forces Canada will call for a Gomery-style inquiry to see where the whole PARASITE INDUSTRY pissed Billions of your tax dollars away over the past 12 years. In this edition there is only one Gomery story, and that is in the Montreal dateline. A few years ago, the Liberals with great fanfare eliminated the tobacco sponsorship of the Montreal’s Formula 1 race. The Liberals replaced tobacco money with taxpayer money. In the Montreal datelined story, I will quote Gomery testimony about where and how your tax dollars were spent on Formula 1. I will quote a couple of my contemporaneous and prescient accounts from 2003. From New Glasgow, Nova Scotia and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan come the first winners of the Forces Canada pre-election contest. If you feel you have a brief comment you would like to share with your fellow Canadians send me a brief e-mail at: warren.klass@3web.com. Put in the headline Election comment. I will only publish the city and province of winning entries. In my last column I referred to the $100 million contribution from the Liberal Party to the Asper’s pet project in Loserpeg. (The Aspers own the National Post, about 60% of the newspapers in Canada, and the Global TV Network) as a: ”monument to Dead Jews from Rich Jews funded by the Liberal Party of Canada and paid for by the taxpayers of Canada.” I stand corrected. The official title of this $100 million Pork-Barrel is:” The Asper Human Rights and Holocaust Program.” Sorry for the confusion. In this column, I usually report the endless verbiage of the Canadian media. Virtually every Canadian media outlet, however, ignored David Frum’s column in the New York Times ”Woe Canada.” David Frum, the son of Canadian broadcast legend Barbara Frum went on to Harvard where he received his law degree. Later he went on to become one of George W. Bush’s speech writers, coining the famous phrase ”Axis of Evil.” I would like to quote my fellow Canadians an excerpt of what Mr. Frum had to say in the New York Times-and decide for yourself why the Canadian media completely ignored: ’Woe Canada”:
Dateline - New Glasgow, Nova Scotia-Voice of the People
Two long established bars have recently closed in New Glasgow because of the smoking ban. The local Quacks of Pictou County have been bombarding the local media with claims that” second-hand smoke is the leading cause of death in the workplace.” No evidence to support their claims was ever produced. As the correspondent from New Glasgow pointed out this is even more ridiculous in an area with the Michelin tire plant, a Nova Scotia power plant and various steel mills. The most ridiculous smoking ban, however, is on the entire grounds of Trenton Works-a steel and railroad car shop. Trenton Works has hundreds of welders, grinders, and paint shops, and their big concern is employees having a cigarette outdoors. Dateline - Montreal, Quebec
In 2003,with great fanfare and to great media cheerleading the Liberals replaced the $30 million Montreal’s Formula 1 received from the tobacco companies with money from the taxpayers. WHERE DID THAT PARTICULAR $30 MILLION GO? Paul Martin cannot tell the Canadian people with a straight face, he didn’t know where THAT $30 Million ended up. Paul Martin owes millions of Canadians an explanation! In 2003, Forces Canada extensively covered the long soap opera. In the “I Told You So/My Back Pages” file I’ll quote what I wrote at the time. I’ll conclude this Montreal dateline with under oath testimony of where the millions of taxpayer’s dollars went. Here are some selected excerpts from Forces Canada 2003:
If I had a bet, I’d wager that the Liberal Party would spend another 30 million pork barreling in Quebec. What’s another 30 million to buy some votes in Quebec? And the taxpayers get screwed once again…Thus this becomes another expensive junket for Martin Cauchon and his Liberal flunkies.” Here are a couple of recent highlights of under oath testimony from the Gomery Inquiry of where your Formula 1 tax dollars went:
Where did the other $28.5 million go, Paul? Or was there lots more than $30 million that went in to the Montreal Grand Prix? What was the total tab for Canadian taxpayers? Dateline - Windsor, Ontario
Next week’s punch line in Forces Canada: Grope and Flail, Toronto Red Star, National Post basically calling Karen Bodirsky of Fair Air a stooge for Big Tobacco at Dolton’s Showtrial. Dolton’s PARASITES claimed the most comprehensive study ever undertaken on what a smoking ban will do to Ontario’s largest employer was dismissed as Tobacco Company propaganda. The Windsor Star reported that overall casino revenues from the Windsor Casino fell to $501 million from $639 million in 2001.These are Ontario government figures, not tobacco company propaganda. Their very own projections show the hit just the Windsor and Niagara casinos stand to take if a smoking ban is imposed: $751 million to $261 million. This hysterical ranting comes from an Ontario government agency not Fair Air or Pubco. Dateline - Niagara Falls, Ontario
Also from Niagara Falls, the Toronto Red Star reported that the Crystal Gentleman’s Club-a Niagara strip joint-has launched an appeal of the smoking ban in court on the grounds that the Niagara Casino allows smoking. The appeal claims Niagara’s anti-smoking bylaw has “nothing to do with health.” Dateline - Toronto, Ontario
I am not going to claim I am giving this story the attention it probably deserves. I am sitting on a pile of stories from across Canada. The mandate of Forces Canada is all of Canada-and not just Toronto and Ontario. Here is the Canadian Press account of the Dolton Gang cutting off this farce after a couple of days of hearings: “This attempt to minimize and control public comment is further proof the government knows it is proceeding with legislation that is based on punishing smokers and is unfair,” said Nancy Digneault, president of the self-proclaimed smokers’ rights group, mychoice.ca.
No kidding. I’ll have a lot more about the theatre of the absurd going on at Dolton’s show trial next week in Forces Canada. Dateline - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-Voice of the People
Dateline - Regina, Saskatchewan
Both the Regina Leader-Post and CBC carried follow-up stories. It seems the Robins Donut shop shares a strip mall with the constituency office of Saskatchewan Health Minister John Nilson-the minister in charge of the smoking ban. Both reported that Nilson is busy consulting his lawyers. The Leader-Post reported that few hospitality venues are planning to follow Robin’s Donuts lead. The NDP government is threatening to”yank”the liquor licenses and VLT of any hospitality venue that doesn’t enforce the smoking ban. Dateline - Yorkton, Saskatchewan
The Mayor doesn’t have to go far to complain. The Painted Hand Casino is across the street from city hall, and apparently doing a booming business. Dateline - Lloydminster, Saskatchewan/Alberta
CBC profiled this Tale of Two Cities. Here is what Lloydminster Mayor Ken Baker told CBC: ”On the housing side, its probably 4-1 or 5-1 being built on the Alberta side.
Saskatchewan side bar owner, Sean Brennan, told CBC customers are going en mass to the Alberta side of town because of the smoking ban in Saskatchewan:
“More people smoke in
Canada than vote Liberal in federal elections.” Before I get to the tobacco news from Canada, I have an announcement to make: it’s a forgone conclusion there will be a very dirty federal election in Canada within the next several months. My views on the Liberal Party are crystal clear. Last week I was sent e-mail from regular Forces Canada reader. It was the thoughts of a Conservative voter in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I am including it in the Halifax dateline. If you feel that you have something to say to your fellow Canadians preceding the election, send me e-mail at: warren.klass@3web.net or wklass44@yahoo.com. Please keep it brief, and put in the subject headline: Election comment. Let me know if you want your name included if selected for publication. I realize that Canadians are separated by great distance, there is a rural-urban divide, and many of our citizens don’t speak English as a first language. But we have so much in common. The experience of living in Canada since the Liberal Party won power in 1993. It’s been a fun 12 years, hasn’t it? Dateline - Halifax, Nova Scotia-Voice of the People
Dateline - Montreal, Quebec
Dateline - Toronto, Ontario
Also from Toronto, there was a press release announcing that Karen Bodirsky of the Fair Air Association of Canada (FAAC.www.faac.ca) and Edgar Mitchell of Pubco (www.pubcoalition.com) have jointly produced the most definitive, comprehensive study ever produced at what a province-wide smoking ban will do to the Ontario hospitality industry. Both are to appear and testify in front of Dolton’s show trial. Dateline - Winnipeg, Manitoba
One of the Asper boys that own the National Post (in addition to the Post, the Aspers own 60% of the newspapers in Canada and Global TV Network) wrote a column in the National Post calling for a delay in the vote, giving the Liberals time to recover. If you want access to the press, it helps to own one. Several days later by a massive co-incidence, The Liberals announced funding for the Asper’s pet project in Loserpeg-$100 million funding for the Asper’s project - a monument to Dead Jews from Rich Jews funded by the Liberal Party of Canada and paid for by the taxpayers of Canada. If I was cynical, I’d think that we are on the verge of an election and the Liberals are using the public treasury to buy some Jewish votes in Loserpeg.The Liberals hold three seats in affluent south end Winnipeg. Also from Loserpeg, Winnipeg Sun columnist Laurie Mustard, and Winnipeg Free Press columnist Lindor Reynolds are two anti-smoking morons, who would be hard pressed to cover a fire anywhere other than Loserpeg.Both wrote a column about the NDP banning the display of cigarettes. Both are reliable anti-smoking nuts given to the usual bombast. Mustard, however, sounds unusually reasonable. Lindor Reynolds as always manages to sound like Ilsa Koch. (Great moment in anti-smoking:Ilsa Koch, an anti-smoking fanatic convicted at Nuremberg of using the skins of concentration camp inmates to make lampshades, pelvic bones were used to make ashtrays). Excepts from the usually anti-smoker, Winnipeg Sun columnist Laurie Mustard on the N.D.P.banning the display of tobacco:
When I think of the Free Press’s Liberal Party supporter Lindor Reynolds I think of a four-letter word beginning with ”C” -Cold. Here is a sample of her prose:
I don’t recall smokers bitching about picking up the extensive medical bills of a middle-aged bitch that throws her back out doing Yoga. Smokers never bitched about picking up Lindor Reynolds’s life-style related medical bills. Lindor concludes her hate fest with the statement:
Thank you, Nurse Rached! Lindor also lovingly quotes one of the Liberal Party funded PARASITES as saying:” We have to work to de-normalize smoking. The cigarette companies normalized it.” Riggghhht! Normalizing smoking was all a nefarious plot of Philip Morris, and we lucky Canadian smokers get to spent $500 million a year for the Liberal Party funded PARASITE INDUSTRY to “de-normalize “us. Hannah Arendt once defined fascism as “the normalization of barbarity.” I don’t know what I find more distasteful: Hitler trying to ”de-normalize” smokers, or the Liberal Party piggybank opened up to “de-normalize” law abiding Canadians. Dateline_Edmonton, Alberta
Dateline - Vancouver, B.C.
The Cancer Society’s justifacation?” More than 500 British Columbians die each year from exposure to second-hand smoke.” Is there any point even asking for evidence? Dateline - Simcoe, Ontario
The Reformer reported that promised aid from the Dolton Gang and the scandal plagued federal Liberals would be too little, too late to save the family tobacco farms. Dateline - Etibioke, Ontario
The bluenoses of Etibioke can enjoy the edifying spectacle of 60 women dancing around nude, and watching porn of wide-screen TVs, but are not allowed a cigarette. Dateline - Winnipeg, Manitoba
What this latest attempt at social engineering is supposed to accomplish is anyone’s guess. Dateline - Yorkton, Saskatchewan
The Painted Hand Casino in Yorktown joins Indian owned casinos in Prince Albert, North Battleford, and the White Bear First Nation in allowing smoking. New Indian owned casinos are being planned for Swift Current and near Saskatoon. Dateline - Regina, Saskatchewan
Tom Mullins, the president of the Saskatchewan Hotel Association told CBC that members have lost an average of 30% since the smoking ban was imposed. The leader of the opposition Saskatchewan Party told the Star-Phoenix his party never would have gone along with supporting the province-wide ban if they had known that the Indians would be exempt. The NDP government assured all who would listen that Indians would support a smoking ban. Where the NDP got this idea is beyond me. For years Forces Canada has repeatedly quoted Indian leaders that they had no intention in banning smoking. In other tobacco news from Regina, the Regina Leader-Post is profiling a Robin’s Donut shop located on Albert Street and 25th Avenue. This donut shop claims to have found a loophole in the smoking ban. They converted an adjacent room, open only to”stockholders”, not the general public into a smoking room. The process by which one becomes a “stockholder” is too convoluted to be repeated here. Suffice to say the anti-smoking PARASITES are busy consulting their lawyers. Dateline - Edmonton, Alberta
Before I get to the tobacco news from across Canada, I have a couple of announcements to make. A regular Forces Canada reader has sent me an announcement. A group called Ontarians for Responsible Government has started a web site: www.dumpdalton.org. Its very funny. I encourage all Ontario residents to check it out. Mail. I get mail. Last week I reported in an Orillia datelined story how a scammer named Robert Boshaw successfully scammed E I. with the claim that he contracted pneumonia, asthma and a sinus condition from second-hand smoke. Late last week Robert Boshaw sent me an e-mail complaining about what I wrote. In the interest of fairness here are the exact unedited words of Robert Boshaw:
I learned long ago that there was nothing to be gained by getting into a pissing contest with a skunk. Lets examine the claims one by one: Boshaw claims to have inhaled “the equivalent of two packs a day at work.” For this claim to be true he would have to recall virtually every toxicology textbook on earth. The ratio of primary to second-hand smoke is something like 100,000 to 1. The longest most comprehensive study ever conducted on the prolonged exposure by non-smoking hospitality workers to second-hand smoke was conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Using state of the art measuring equipment, the peer reviewed Oak Ridge study concluded hospitality workers were exposed to the equivalent of 1-2 cigarettes a year-not the equivalent of two packs a day as Boshaw claimed. Furthermore not a single of the 173 non-smoking bartenders, waiters or waitresses after prolonged exposure to second-hand smoke showed any symptoms of asthma or pneumonia. Or for that matter: lung cancer, heart disease, bronchitis, inner ear infections, leprosy or the heartbreak of psoriasis. Boshaw wanted an explanation how he could have caught pneumonia. Probably like everyone else through airborne contact with someone who had it. Asthma? For the record I have been an asthmatic for 45 years. Asthma has THOUSANDS OF CAUSES. Cigarette smoke, however, ain’t one of them. Claims regarding second-hand smoke and asthma and pneumonia were specifically VACATED (null and void) in a 92-page decision in a 1998 in U.S. Federal Court. The decision was based on 31 epidemiological studies. In subsequent e-mails I asked Boshaw if his doctor performed a test elevated cotanine levels. This would merely answer if he were exposed to enough second-hand smoke to even register. Passive cotanine tests would be useless because many other substances could account for increased cotanine levels. An elevated cotanine test would have only proved he was exposed to a measurable level of second-hand smoke. It would not explained if or how this supposedly caused his ailments. Cotanine is harmless, and is pissed out of one’s system very quickly. Boshaw never responded to my questions of elevated cotanine tests. I asked about the multitude of diagnostic tests required that would eliminate the thousands of documented causes of asthma or pneumonia. Was there even a single, solitary test ever performed that would lead to this diagnosis? Boshaw’s silence on the question of testing was deafening. What about Boshaw’s doctor, and the Ontario Medical Association? Last month I reported that an esteemed member of the Ontario Medical Association claimed second-hand smoke was responsible for the common cold and SIDS.I’m still waiting for the evidence about those claims. As for the HRDC for those who don’t remember before the Gomery Inquiry, HRDC was the subject of the biggest scandal in Canadian history. Remember the missing 2 Billion at HRDC they couldn’t account for? The Minister responsible, Jane Nixon resigned in disgrace and left politics. HRDC is another Liberal Party success story. In further correspondence, I suggested that Rob take his ”EVIDENCE” and contact a lawyer about suing the tobacco companies. I reminded him that 52 lawyers turned down a chance to sue the tobacco companies on behalf of Heather Crowe. Lung cancer in non-smokers only has 40 documented causes. Asthma has thousands of causes. Its one thing to bamboozle a few know-nothings in the media, it’s another to prove his claims in court. Scroll down the page to the Orillia dateline. I NEVER CALLED ROBERT BOSHAW A LIAR. He may well be a naïve dupe, and a hypochondriac -- but I never called him a liar. Dateline - Fredricton, New Brunswick
Canadian Press reported that the leader of the New Brunswick Liberal Party called on the provincial government to get into this shakedown business. The New Brunswick government declined pending the Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of a B.C. lawsuit that strips the power of defense from the tobacco companies. Once again here is the evidence provincial governments don’t want admitted:
Dateline - Montreal, Quebec
Bonne chance! Dateline - London, Ontario
The local PARASITES are busy consulting their lawyers, according to the Free Press. Dateline - Kingston, Ontario
One bar owner told the Whig-Standard:” We’re the ones who have to deal with the tourists, and the tourists don’t get it. “They’re on the patio and a car drives by and there are more fumes coming out of it than from people on the patios smoking…We’ve seen the decrease in our business. People aren’t spending the extra dollar the way they used to.” Dateline - Kitchener/Waterloo
Dateline - Calgary, Alberta
In this special Decline of the West edition I am going to digress from the usual format to focus on some of the tobacco news from Western Canada. Next week, Forces Canada will return with its usual Ontario dominated news, including a story from Kingston and a follow-up to an Orillia datelined story carried earlier in the week. Dateline - Winnipeg, Manitoba
The sublime comes from Thomas Laprade. There has never been an individual mentioned in this page as often, with considerable justification as Thomas Laprade. No one from our side has pierced the media bias against us as much as Thomas Laprade. If and when, enough of us go to the polls and throw out the Liberals and NDP, and take back the country from the liars, PARASITES, and social engineers, and restore decency, there should be a statue of Thomas Laprade in every city. Winston Churchill once said the greatest army to fight fascism was the English language. You can read Thomas’ correspondence to the Winnipeg Free Press to see how true that statement is. Here is Thomas’ letter that was published earlier this week in the Winnipeg Free Press:
From the sublime to the ridiculous. What could the anti-smoking PARASITES do for an encore in Loserpeg? According to the Winnipeg Sun tell elderly people who require in home assistance to refrain from smoking an hour before a worker arrives -- IN THEIR OWN HOME! The stated pretext is fear of an allergic reaction to second-hand smoke. Never mind there are no allergens in cigarette smoke. Surprisingly there is opposition developing to this high-handed action of the NDP. Lori Hunter, the director of the Manitoba Society of Seniors told the Winnipeg Sun: ”They’re discriminating against smokers. I don’t know if they can do that.” The Conservative party Health critic finally raised objections to this high-handed stunt. Dateline - Edmonton, Alberta
As to be expected the entire anti-smoking media let loose. Calgary Sun columnist, ding a ling Rick Bell wrote one of his usual unreadable diatribes. And of course, Canada’s answer to Nurse Rached, Edmonton Sun columnist Mindelle Jacobs weighed in with her usual idiocy. In her column Mindelle described the claims of lost business after smoking bans are imposed “a myth.” Riggghhtt. For the past few years, Forces Canada has made up all the losses suffered by the hospitality industry. I’ve spent the past few years fabricating stories from places I couldn’t find on a map from newspapers that don’t exist. Many of you sent me your thoughts on Mindelle’s latest column. Unfortunately I can’t repeat some of the more animated names she was called. But virtually all called her a word that rhymes with witch. Dateline - Hinton, Alberta
The Hinton charity bingo cannot be run without volunteers. Most of the volunteers are teenagers who cannot now volunteer because they are banned where smoking is allowed. The Hinton charity bingo is having a tough time recruiting enough adult volunteers. A lengthy group of charities rely on the bingo. These include: sports teams and bands from Harry Collinge high school, Crescent Valley school, Gerard Redmond Community Catholic school, the Hinton Boys and Girls Club, and the Hinton Luge Association. 90% of the Luge Association comes from the bingo. Dateline - Whitehorse, Yukon
According to the Whitehorse charter, if 20% of the population signs a petition the law is re-opened. Organizers are getting signatures. One participant told the Star:” if its found staff deliberately withheld this information (the dubious scientific claims of second-hand smoke), they can be fired for that. Council will then not have any ability to say they were ignorant. It will be in their face and they will be forced to reopen the debate.” The Star also reports that smokers are refusing to park their cars in meters downtown to deprive the city of money to protest the smoking ban. Others are refusing to patronize municipal services for the same reason. Before I get to the tobacco news from across Canada, I have an announcement to make. Regular Forces Canada readers will recognize the name of the Fair Air Association Of Canada (F.A.A.C) and its tireless spokesperson, Karen Bodirsky. Last week, Karen sent me an e-mail to announce that FAAC has put out a video about the proposed Ontario smoking ban entitled:” Who’s Your Nanny?” The video can be downloaded at the FAAC site: www.faac.ca. There will be more about the FAAC in the Orillia dateline. Dateline - St. John’s, Newfoundland
In other news from Newfoundland, Canadian Press reported that the tax on cigarettes went up by .25 cents a pack. Dateline - Halifax, Nova Scotia
Dateline - Montreal, Quebec
Dateline - Orillia, Ontario
The Nazis in fact used this very Blood-Libel in their anti-smoking propaganda for smoking bans. In various propaganda venues, second-hand smoke was labeled:” A Jewish plot to poison the Aryan race.” Like the Nazis, various claims about second-hand smoke have become the new “Blood-Libel” of Canada. The most famous Canadian Blood-Libel involved the claim of Ottawa waitress Heather Crowe who supposedly got lung cancer from second-hand smoke. Never mind for a moment that there are 40 documented causes of lung cancer in non-smokers, and not one iota of scientific evidence that second-hand smoke is the 41st;the Liberal government and its $500 million a year PARASITE Industry spent millions spent millions selling this Blood-Libel to Canadians. What makes this even more ridiculous is the fact that it’s a valid question if Heather Crowe ever had lung cancer in the first place. But why let anything as mundane as truth, evidence or facts get in the way of a Blood-Libel? This introduction brings us to Canada’s latest Blood-Libel. The Toronto Red Star and Canadian Press are both reporting that a 36-year-old casino worker from Orillia named Robert Boshaw has successfully received E.I.because of second-hand smoke. This is the second successful claim of its kind in Canada, the other being some hypochondriac in Nova Scotia. Mr. Boshaw claimed, with absolutely no evidence that second-hand smoke was responsible for his getting: pneumonia, sinus infections and getting asthma at age 36.Needless to say there is no evidence in medical or scientific literature that remotely substantiates these claims. Asthma for example has thousands of causes, but tobacco smoke, which has no allergens, is not one. Does Mr.Boshaw even have asthma or is it the mis-diagnosis from some Quack who wants another Heather Crowe? Surprise-surprise. Robert Boshaw, not being content with merely scamming E.I.is preparing to testify in favor of smoking bans. Karen Bodirsky of the Fair Air Association of Canada (FAAC) put out a press release calling for Designated Smoking Rooms to protect these kinds of hypochondriacs from second-hand smoke. Dateline - St. Thomas, Ontario
Mrs. Langeille has started a petition to give the Legion the same exemption granted the bingo. Her goal is 500 signatures to present to city council. She has already collected 302,a third coming from non-smokers. Dateline - Brampton, Ontario
Dateline - Toronto, Ontario
Both the Grope and Flail’s Report on Business and the Toronto Red Star are reporting that Labatt’s, Canada’s largest brewery is closing its Toronto plant. Neither paper mentioned Toronto’s smoking ban as a reason for the closure but it certainly seems to be co-incidental. Also from the Big Lemon comes the Dumb and Dumber story. Both McLean’s magazine and the Ottawa Journal are reporting that the Ontario N.D.P. have a solution to the problems of Ontario’s Tobacco farmers: let them grow “Medical” marijuana. Never mind that marijuana-medical or otherwise-is way more carcinogenic than tobacco. Dolton’s agriculture minister shot down that idea and proposed something even dumber. Ontario’s tobacco growers should switch to fruit and vegetables on sandy tobacco soil in a glutted market for both. Dateline - Thunder Bay, Ontario
According to a story from the Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal these young scholars had no idea what they were voting for. They thought they were voting only for an indoor smoking ban and had no idea they were voting to ban smoking on the entire campus. The Chronicle-Journal reported that they took another vote. This time 811 out of 1,100 voted to rescind the previous outdoor smoking ban at Flakehead U. Dateline - Kenora, Ontario
In the Let Them Eat Cake department, Sarsfield told the Winnipeg Free Press: ”bars, tobacco farmers and corner stores that sell cigarettes should just accept the inevitable decline in smoking and find another way to make money.” Why doesn’t the Ontario government ban tobacco entirely? 40% of the Ontario budget goes to pay the salaries of Quacks like Sarsfield. Ontario only has an accumulated debt of $126 Billion. I’m sure Sarsfield and his ilk would have no problem accepting less money because of the decline in smoking, and its inevitable economic fallout. Dateline - Winnipeg, Manitoba
Both Winnipeg papers ignored the latest bitching. Only Broadcast News carried the story. Dateline - Calgary, Alberta
“Would Les Hagen (Action on Smoking and Health) ask for a free vote on MLA Dave Rodney’s smoking ban bill if 75% of the public smoked?” Dateline - Edmonton, Alberta
“The frustrating thing for those opposed to sweeping bans is the whole smoke-free movement is a steamroller backed by well paid lobbyists and well oiled government campaigns. Both of these play fast and loose with facts on second-hand smoke-but that doesn’t seem to matter. Claims by lobbyists and governments that second-hand smoke kills hundreds or thousands of people annually simply isn’t backed up by science. The most comprehensive study (involving 118,000 people) of the effects of second-hand smoke, published by the British Medical Journal, concluded its “premature to conclude that environmental tobacco smoke causes death from coronary heart disease and lung cancer.” If there really scores of Canadians dying directly as a result of second-hand smoke, citizens deserve to be told their names so we can become familiar with their individual stories. But that can’t happen because it’s simply not true.” Dateline - Terrace, B.C.
Even the Health Officer considered the smoking ban unnecessary and an over-reaction. < Back To "I read the news..." > |
TOBACCO
NEWS FROM CANADA
April
28 - The following correspondence was in response to an article in the
Edmonton Sun.