The Ontario government has introduced what it says will be the toughest anti-smoking law in Canada.
The Smoke-Free Ontario Act will prohibit smoking in all public places and workplaces across the province by May 31, 2006. That will mean the end of smoking in restaurants and bars, casinos, arenas and legion halls.
As well, office buildings will have get rid of their smoking rooms, sending smokers outside for a butt.
What's more, cigarettes will no longer be allowed to be displayed on store counters or on racks behind the cash register.
Convenience store operators say that aspect of the legislation will be devastating for their industry. Dave Bryans, executive director of the Ontario Convenience Stores Association, says tobacco sales comprise between 40 and 60 per cent of a typical convenience store's business.
If passed, the legislation would make Ontario the third province behind Saskatchewan and Manitoba to try to ban the display of tobacco products.
The tobacco industry took Saskatchewan to court over the ban, arguing that federal tobacco laws give them the right to display their products for sale. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on that challenge next month.
Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman says the legislation will eliminate the "patchwork quilt" of municipal bylaws governing smoking across the province.
He says the goal is to take off some of the pressure that tobacco puts on the health-care system.
"The bill... would protect all Ontarians from the deadly effects of cigarette smoke, whether they are in their office, at a restaurant, in the laundry room of their apartment building, on the floor of a factory, in an underground parking garage or at a shopping mall,'' Smitherman told the legislature.
"In other words, unless Ontarians want to be exposed to cigarette smoke, they won't be."
Smitherman said in a statement that he believes most Ontarians will support the bill.
"This proposed legislation is fair and balanced," Smitherman said. "We've consulted broadly, worked closely with our stakeholders, and we're confident that a large majority of Ontarians support what we're doing."
Dr. Sheela Basrur, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, applauded the proposed legislation.
"About 16,000 Ontarians die prematurely each year due to smoking -- that's about 44 deaths every day," Basrur said.
Statistics Canada estimates there are just over 1.7 million smokers in Ontario. That's just under 17 per cent of the population.
And there's even more bad news for smokers. The province is expected to raise cigarette taxes as much as $2 to $5 a carton over coming months.
Nancy Daignault, a spokeswoman for mychoice.ca, a smokers' rights group that's paid for by the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers Council, says her group plans to fight the legislation. She says the goal of Smitherman's legislation is to punish smokers rather than protect non-smokers.
Daignault points to the proposal to ban smoking on enclosed outdoor patios.
"Does it make sense from a public health objective to ban smoking on open air patios when the air is already full of exhaust fumes and other pollutants?" she wonders.
Oscar-winning English playwright Ronald Harwood has back out of a promise to direct a play at the Manitoba Theatre Centre next winter because he wouldn't be able to smoke. Winnipeg has a smoking ban in public places. Harwood said trips to New York and Toronto, where smoking is restricted, have curbed his enthusiasm for those cities too.
"The reason for going back on my word is that I am a cigarette smoker," he said via e-mail. "I have recently visited Canada and had to suffer the most draconian anti-smoking regulations in restaruants and public buildings. I had no intention of allowing myself to be forced out into the street in the winter to partake of one of my great pleasures."
Bernie Starr likes to smoke. Not a lot. Just six or seven throughout the day.
Cigarettes pass the time in Kingston Penitentiary, where days feel like months and time is a man�s worst enemy.
But this fall, the Correctional Service of Canada will finish a plan to make all federal prison buildings smoke-free and then men like Starr will be told to pass the time some other way.
�I�m a pretty reasonable person, but I would probably be a little bit upset and I would probably find a way to smoke,� Starr, the vice-president of the maximum-security prison�s inmate committee, said yesterday in a telephone interview.
Since most inmates smoke, Starr figures many will disregard the rule.
Starr, like other inmates and people who speak on behalf of prisoners and prison guards, fears tempers will flare in an already-volatile environment if the convicts� main way of relieving is taken away.
�It�s going to create a nightmare for correctional officers,� said Jason Godin, regional president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, of the plan to ban smoking indoors at prisons, but allow smoking outside.
The proposal includes plans to help inmates kick the habit with aids such as Nicorette gum, Nicorette patches and the prescription drug Zyban.
But Godin, who represents 1,600 Ontario members, said the Correctional Service hasn�t considered the consequences of its planned smoking ban.
He said guards want a zero-tolerance policy with no smoking allowed anywhere at federal institutions because it will be impossible to police a partial ban.
�How are we going police that when our institutions are already out of control?� Godin asked.
�Now we�re going to have to become smoking police as well.�
Policing tobacco will be almost impossible since it isn�t illegal, he said.
That�s because possession of tobacco won�t be illegal, because Canada�s prisons don�t have enough staff and the Correctional Service doesn�t come down hard enough on inmates who break prison rules.
At most institutions, federal inmates and staff can now smoke anywhere except in administrative areas, gymnasiums, dining rooms, kitchens and health areas. That means they can smoke on their cellblocks and in their cells.
If they�re only permitted to smoke a few times a day or less and only outdoors, inmates will become more dangerous, Godin said.
�They�re going to take it out on the staff and that will ... create an increase in assaults and abuse on our members.�
�If they�re going to move forward with this, they�d better be careful not to increase stress levels which increases the violence in prisons,� Orr said.
If inmates are going to be forced to quit smoking, they will need help doing it and prisons must provide generous and flexible smoking cessation programs, he said.
Nonetheless, he said prisons should expect the ban to cause a lot of problems because prisoners consider their cells their homes and many believe they should be allowed to do whatever they want in their homes.
