TOBACCO NEWS FROM CANADA
(Archives)

September 2005

Comments by Warren Klass
President, FORCES - Canada

TOBACCO NEWS FROM CANADA

Comments by Warren Klass President, FORCES - Canada

Dateline - Calgary, Alberta

“The country I come from is called the mid-west.”
Bob Dylan. With God On Our Side.

September 28 - This is a special Calgary edition of Forces Canada. I have a special fondness for the city of Calgary, the only big city in Canada (sorry Saskatoon) that did not elect a single Liberal to Parliament.

This special issue contains comments that were recently published in the Calgary Sun and Calgary Herald.

Calgary Sun columnist Ted Byfield takes on the ideology of the CBC in his most recent column, but its obvious he is taking on the entire belief system of Eastern Canadian liberalism. Some excerpts:

“We are surrounded by government. We live in one of the most over-governed, over-regulated, over-taxed countries in the western world.

Beyond taxing us half way into poverty, we have a government that tells us how we must raise our children, what kind of jokes we can tell, what sort of people we must hire, what parts of the Bible we can and cannot read publicly, and where, whether, when, and how often we may smoke…

(CBC’s propaganda mission) It begins and ends with one unexamined assumption. We know what this country is supposed to be. Its our job to tell you what that is, and to make sure you follow the “Canadian Way,” which is left-wing, nanny-state, anti-American, and very anti-Alberta.

And by ”the country,” I mean the country, not the select little media circle in Toronto and Ottawa, who are forever telling us “what it means to be a Canadian.””

Thomas Laprade had a letter published in the Calgary Sun applauding Premier Ralph Klein for sending  $400 to every Alberta resident. Here is Thomas’ letter:

“I give Premier Ralph Klein an ‘A’ in economics. Money spent by consumers is better for the economy than money spent by politicians,”

Thomas Laprade
Thunder Bay, Ontario

The Calgary Herald recently published the following commentary by Calgary lawyer Bruce Koral entitled “Trampling rights wrong course” that takes on the intellectual justification for smoking bans. Some excerpts:

“After appealing to emotion by citing numbers and painting alarming pictures of smoke-filled restaurants and pubs Naomi Lakritz asks:” Why should we wait even one more day to stop poisoning these people?”

However, instead of wondering whether the 2008 date was politically expedient for city hall or it should be moved up at all we should be asking if this popular smoking ban is appropriate in the first place.

For most people, including smokers, this smoking ban debate has been over for a while, so why rehash something already long decided?

In his famous vindication of moral liberty Lysander Spooner explained that “vices are not crimes” and in the current age of politically correct crusades his words couldn’t be more prescient.

If we are talking about the continuing failed war on drugs, the impending war on obesity or the current age of politically correct crusades the common thread is state coercion and people’s unwavering faith in the benevolence of government.

Robin Hefferton refers to the fact that 90 per cent of the people she approaches sign her petition but this should have little bearing on whether this ban is right or wrong. As history has shown us, the majority frequently errs. So why trust their will even if it’s something as innocuous as a trendy smoking ban?

Because other municipalities are hopping on the bandwagon and we could be stuck in the middle of two provinces, that ban tobacco shouldn’t play a part in what we do and it shouldn’t be the raison d’etre of the smoking ban.

The story of Hefferton’s friend who quit her job is touching but unfortunately for her the fact remains that a privately owned and operated business should be free to choose whether to be smoking or non-smoking While open to the public it is not a “public place” where democratic rule or government laws should govern smoking policies. The employees can choose to work there or elsewhere and patrons have no right to force their agenda on the establishment.

Ergo, contrary to what Hefferton says this is intentionally or unintentionally about property rights versus state control. When the state can dictate how you run your business or what patrons can or cannot do by force, then it inevitably becomes about state control.

The fact that 75 per cent of Calgarians are non-smokers is a moot point but if they really wanted non-smoking venues then it should follow that restaurants and bars would cater to this demand and thus legislation isn’t needed.

Robyn Hefferton and Naomi Lakritz may have an earnest desire to see people kick the smoking habit, but using legalized force to trample on private property rights is the wrong course to take.”

I received an interesting e-mail responding to my last column from Denmark .I have to admit I was very surprised and flattered that someone from Denmark took the time and trouble to read and respond to my column in impeccable, learned English. It was a very brilliant correspondence.

The individual criticized me for devoting too much space to events such as Hurricane Katrina and not enough to Canada’s endless war on smokers. Fair enough. As I’ve previously stated I’ve become mentally burned out from endlessly commenting upon the local minutia of anti-smoking politics throughout Canada.

I confess I know very little about Denmark. I read Kierkegaard (the melancholy Danish philosopher. Fear and Trembling, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, etc) many years ago. I know Queen Margrethe is a heavy, unapologetic smoker. I have never been to Denmark, and never known a single Dane. But if there is a race of people who stand as history’s greatest heroes, it’s the Danes.

It’s a little known fact that in WW II the only place the Holocaust was stopped by the local population was in Denmark. When the Nazis invaded Denmark, their first ordinance required all Danish Jews to wear Yellow Stars. The King of Denmark in his morning horse ride through Copenhagen wore a yellow star. By the end of the day virtually the entire population of Denmark were wearing Yellow Stars.

This frustrated the Nazis plans for deportation of Jews to the Death Camps. When word of the plan leaked out, the Danes under Nazi occupation and at great risk to their own lives organized a plan to use all available boats to move Denmark’s Jews to safety in Sweden. To this day many Jews name their children Dane to honor the heroism of the Danish people.

I am convinced if anti-smoking will be stopped anywhere it will be in Denmark when Queen Margrethe defiantly lights up a cigarette. The Danes are a people who refuse to be intimidated by Nazis old or new.

Dateline - Montreal, Quebec

September 23 - I realize I promised many of you I would comment on many local stories this week. Due to space and time constraints, it will have to be in the next column.

The really big story in Canada comes from Montreal. The Montreal Gazette in a front page story, the Grope and Flail and CBC all reported that a coalition from Montreal’s hospitality industry (Voula Demopoulos, Peter Sergakis, Dan Romano, and Renaud Poulin) have retained one of Canada’s foremost constitutional lawyers, Julius Grey to preemptively challenge Quebec’s proposed province-wide smoking ban.

The non-smoking Mr. Grey told the Gazette:

“There is a limit to how much can be imposed for your own good. If the government decides its not good for you to drink, would Prohibition today be a valid result?

You do not repeal the rule of law merely because there is a…wave of enthusiasm for a particular policy.

We have a tendency to have a campaign, and that campaign always goes too far in regulation and restricting.  And it becomes difficult to even criticize it.”

Peter Sergakis, one of the two named plaintiffs in the case told CBC:

“I’m working all my life to build my business. In Ottawa, 210 bars - 60 of them closed – 25 per cent reductions in sales. We don’t want to lose our businesses and we don’t want to put people out of work.”

Dateline - Toronto, Ontario

September 21 - I’ll get back to the Tobacco News from Canada-including the big story out of Montreal on the pre-emptive Court challenge to smoking bans later in the week.

In a previous column I said some nasty things about Canada’s small contingent of Blame America First. Blame Bush Second, loudmouths always given a respectful forum in the Canadian media (mostly but not limited to Ontario) .I purposely did NOT mention names or quote published newspaper Letters To The Editor.

One correspondent thought I was referring to him personally when I criticized (he capitalized and colored):  ”CHEAP, MORONIC, (ONTARIO), ANTI-AMERICANISM.”

I replied to his e-mail:” Its not just Manitoba, it’s the whole country except for Southern Ontario that objects to equating Canadian Patriotism with anti-Americanism. You are making an ass of yourself with this.”

These are the exact words I then received:

“OK you Yankee lover.

I’ll make an “ass” of myself every time to defend Canada.

The Yanks proved themselves in spades. and you have the nerve to call me cheap and moronic in print to them.

Why don’t you just head south?”

Its not that I love America more, its only that I love Southern Ontario less. I don’t think I’m any less a Canadian patriot for not thinking of Americans as “them”, but rather as “friends and neighbors.”

For the benefit of American readers, keep in mind these sneering comments came from a Toronto suburb. Toronto has an amazing track record, and thus both the moral and practical right to pass judgment on how America responded to a class 5 Hurricane and flood in a major metropolitan area. Toronto has lessons and judgments to share given how brilliantly it handles disasters.

A couple of years ago Toronto was hit with a snowstorm. Not a class 5 Hurricane with flooding, but a snowstorm-not exactly a rare event in Canada. Toronto’s ultimate response? I’m not making this up: mobilize the Canadian Army to shovel snow. It was the USAir Force that moved troops from across bases in Canada to Toronto to shovel snow. It wasn’t America that considered Toronto a laughingstock; it was the rest of Canada. These are the great geniuses and second-guessers of crisis management. Someone from a city that has to call the army in to shovel snow criticizes America’s response to Hurricane Katrina. It was truly Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman and Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s finest hour and profiles in courage. Both these schmucks were overwhelmingly voted in by Toronto. Toronto has lots to teach New Orleans in how to vote in local incompetent schmucks.

 A handful of SARS cases virtually shut down Toronto. Anyone in Canada care to wager that New Orleans will be back to normal quicker than Toronto was with a few SARS cases? After making a complete ass of herself on CNN in front of the world Dr. Shela Barsur during “THE SARS EPIDEMIC” (5 cases) is PROMOTED by the Dolton Gang-another lovable Ontario bunch-to chief Health Officer for the Province of Ontario. This walking embodiment of both affirmative action and the Peter Principle (everyone rises to their own level of incompetence) has turned Ontario into a Blue Nanny State, complete with province-wide smoking bans. And someone from Toronto has the audacity to criticize George W. Bush and America in its hour of need?

Pride is earned. Its not a given. This kind of delusional rhetoric from Southern Ontario is like that character in the Woody Allen movie who said:” 90% of life is showing up.”  I felt great pride as a Canadian that our military is helping the storm victims and that an elite branch of the Vancouver Fire Department. saved 119 people Louisiana in the early days of Hurricane Katrina. Be assured we would have all heard about this heroism if it had been the Toronto not the Vancouver fire department in Louisiana.

I don’t feel any less a patriotic Canadian for admitting there is much I admire about America.

Thomas Laprade of Thunder Bay, Ontario forwarded me the following correspondence published in the Toronto Red Star from an American in Kentucky thanking Canada:

‘Ordinary citizens’ appreciate our help; Canadian sailors help with hurricane cleanup.

“I know the U.S. government has done things to irk Canadians, but I hope you realize that most of us “ordinary citizens” really appreciate appreciate whatever you are doing to help out. All the support from your armed services and civilians alike is heartwarming.

Here in Kentucky, we have received some of the displaced people and are expecting more. But we are working from our” home base” while your military is traveling many miles to assist your sometimes arrogant southern neighbours. Thank you very much, my northern cousins.”

Robert Tipton
Winchester, KY

“If I forced to choose between France and the sea, I choose the sea. If I am forced to choose between De Gaulle and Roosevelt, I choose Roosevelt.” — Winston Churchill to Charles De Gaulle immediately after the fall of France in 1940.

 Forces Canada has gone out of our way to keep cheap, moronic, (ONTARIO) anti-Americanism out of Forces Canada.

All our legions of enemies would love nothing better than Forces Canada giving a forum for some moronic anti-American diatribe from Liberal Ontario, the Carolyn Parrish wing, making total Asses of themselves.

Over the past week I have heard an unbelievable amount of bullshit —  and not all from Ontario either — from fellow Canadians bitching about Canada’s contribution to the Gulf Coast. Nobody is going to accuse me of being nice to the Liberal Party but on this one Paul Martin did the right thing for the right reason in mobilizing Canada’s full support for hurricane victims. This is what friends do.

Dateline - Moncton, New Brunswick

“There will never be a revolution in Germany. They will put up a “Don’t Walk On The Grass” sign. — Lenin

September 9 - Hey, what year is this anyway? The Rolling Stones rocked 85,000 in Monkton and some heroes in the New Brunswick hospitality industry are organizing civil disobedience .Is there a connection between the two events? As Yogi Berra once said: ”There are too many co-coincidences for this to be a co-incidence.”

The St. John’s Telegram profiled the efforts of the New Brunswick hospitality industry to organize civil disobedience to the increasingly unpopular smoking ban. They are contemplating open defiance. A court challenge is being prepared.

Bar owners quoted by the Telegram claimed a 50% loss in business since the smoking ban was imposed.

Dateline - Johnston, Ontario

September 9 -  43 charities and the 25 employees of Bingo International are SOL. The Record quotes the owner’s reason for closing is the 40% loss of business since the smoking ban was imposed.

Dateline - Winnipeg, Manitoba

September 9 - In the School Trustee Leave Them Kids Alone department, various Loserpeg media outlets reported that school trustees voted 5-4 NOT to impose a smoking ban in local schools. As to be expected the local nuts voiced their requisite outrage. Yawwwn.

Also from Loserpeg, the Winnipeg Sun ran the following letter:

“The move to ban fragrances and smoking from public places is getting ridiculous. I have a suggestion that will eliminate the problem: why not ban people from public places? I guarantee this will clear things up.”

A.E.Ammeter
Petersfield, Manitoba

Dateline - Edmonton, Alberta

September 9 - The Edmonton Sun reported: ”Profits are down an average of 25-40% at restaurants, casinos, and bingo halls since the smoking ban kicked in July 1.”

Dateline - Grand Prairie, Alberta

September 9 - An edited version of the following letter was published in the Edmonton Sun:

“It was interesting that in his piece in Steven Csoba’s battle with cancer, Andrew Hanlon found it appropriate to mention that Stephen is an athlete and lifelong non-smoker. I believe the degree to which the uneducated media and gullible public have been misled as to the association between lifestyle and cancer. Far too many resources are being wasted on special interest groups and government bureaucracies bent on educating people to behave the way these self-interested “experts” believe you must.

The anti-tobacco parasites alone suck over one-half billion dollars from legitimate health-care and research budgets annually through their old wives tales linking smoking and cancer, when in fact far more non-smokers die from cancer than do smokers, and the majority of smokers never get cancer. Perhaps groups like the Cancer Society feel that by continuing parading this red herring, they can avoid criticism of their gross ineptitude to make any real progress despite the billions of dollars squandered over the years supporting their exorbitantly expensive cast of thousands.

Goofy organizations like Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada should look inward and be concerned about the more than 14,000 Canadians killed each year by medical malpractice and incompetence, according to the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Bear in mind these are real people that really died, not the phony projections and statistics that they love to quote about smoking. It is mind-boggling how out of control the anti-smoking industry has become. I suppose as long as people continue to swallow the bigoted rhetoric of Herr Hagen and his ilk, the gravy train will continue. It must be nice to be paid to pursue your personal prejudices.

While we continue to tolerate these money-grubbing organizations, talented and productive people like Steven will pay the ultimate price.”

A. Ritchie
Grand Prairie, Alberta

I have been incredibly busy with family matters, so the regular commentary on the tobacco news from Canada will have to wait until next week.

Dateline - Thunder Bay, Ontario-

“Geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends.” President John F. Kennedy, Speech at the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa, 1961

September 2 - The name Thomas Laprade is well known to Forces Canada readers. In the following letter published in both the Calgary and Winnipeg Sun, Thomas calls upon Canada to come to the help of our friends and neighbors in America in their hour of need.

Who’ll come through for the U.S.?

“Usually the Americans are the first nation to step up to the plate when there is a disaster anywhere in the world. It should be interesting to see how many nations offer aid when the Americans are in trouble!”

Thomas Laprade
Thunder Bay, Ont.

I urge all Canadian smokers to demand that the Federal and Provincial governments aid America to the fullest of our ability as a nation.

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