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Smoking ban in apartments and condominiums?

NEWS RELEASE MYCHOICE.CA ************************* Anti-smoking lobby wants smokers evicted and denied accommodation Mon.
SmokingSanta

NEWS RELEASE

MYCHOICE.CA

************************* Anti-smoking lobby wants smokers evicted and denied accommodation

Mon. Dec 11, 2006: The anti-tobacco lobby has once again used its annual closed-door, government-sponsored conference to dream up a new campaign against smokers - this time aimed at forcing them out of their homes and denying them accommodation.

In a move that is irresponsible fear-mongering of the worst kind, the anti-smoking lobby is seeking to turn neighbour against neighbour in order to hound smokers from their homes and encourage major landlords to refuse to rent to them.

The Non-Smokers Rights Association, supported by other groups such as the Ontario Campaign Against Tobacco, used this week's annual Ontario Tobacco Control Conference in Niagara Falls to issue a press release calling for bans on smoking in condos and apartments.

The NSRA press release made emotionally charged claims without offering a single shred of evidence to show there is a problem.

Instead it made wild, unsubstantiated insinuations that neighbours of smokers are at grave risk from smoke that may seep through the partitioning walls through phone jacks and other conduits.

"One might as well claim cooking in peanut oil or consuming peanuts should be banned because the smoke or other particles in the air will go through the walls and could kill those who are severely allergic," said Nancy Daigneault, president of the nearly 40,000-member smokers' rights association mychoice.ca.

"What about air fresheners and other sprays and scents that some people are allergic to? If smoke is getting through the walls then these products are, too."

"And if we go down this road, how long before people start fearing neighbours who may have communicable illnesses? Will condo boards and apartment landlords ban and evict sick people based on the allegation that germs may be sneaking through phone jacks to infect neighbours?"

Ms. Daigneault said if the claims made about tobacco smoke are even remotely true, then the problem applies to all potentially harmful materials and steps should be taken to improve the construction.

"Miniscule traces of tobacco smoke would probably be the least of the things people ought to be worried about," Ms. Daigneault said.

The fact that the government has so far refused to comply with the latest ban demands is only partially reassuring because this powerful lobby group has a constant record of browbeating politicians into adopting extreme measures to hound citizens who smoke.

"The government promised that seniors living out their sunset years in retirement homes would be allowed to smoke - then deliberately created onerous regulations that have resulted in smoking rooms being closed in many facilities," said Ms. Daigneault. "It is also standing by as local health groups ban smoking for these residents outside on their grounds."

Ms. Daigneault also noted that at least one major landlord in Western Canada has banned smokers from leasing any of its many thousands of apartments and politicians have failed to take a stand against this.

"Unless we take a stand, this year's demands by the anti smoking lobby will become next year's new laws," Ms. Daigneault said.

That the anti-smoking lobby feels free to irresponsibly promote a vendetta to drive people from their homes is just one more example of why it is wrong for governments to listen only to these groups and to deny anyone else any input into the designing of new tobacco control policies.

Another example is its renewed demand for the Ontario government and others to dramatically increase taxes yet again on smokers. Of course they unanimously like this idea - no one was allowed to attend the conference who would note that taxes are already at their highest level ever and have created a new black market industry, with illicit products being sold on the streets across the province at a fraction of the price of legal products to adults and children alike.

Ms. Daigneault said the Ontario Tobacco Control Conference is designed to promote ideology, not produce sound policies based on facts, realities and the need to balance the rights of the majority and minorities.

It has now become so bad that the government and the anti-smoking lobby groups it funds are no longer satisfied with excluding anyone with different views from attending their conferences.

For this past week's conference at the Sheraton in Niagara Falls, they pressured the hotel into cancelling a small meeting room booked by mychoice.ca for a gathering of its local members.

"The hotel informed mychoice.ca they had been advised that the conference organizers would not tolerate our group being allowed to meet in the same location," said Ms. Daigneault. "The irony is that delegates from the conference would have been welcome to attend our meeting."

"This action represents discrimination by the hotel and an escalation of attempts by the conference and its government sponsors to prevent free speech and freedom of peaceful assembly," Ms. Daigneault said. "It is an affront to our members," Ms. Daigneault said.

Mychoice.ca has sent a complaint to the Ontario Human Rights Commission and is pursuing the issue with the hotel through other means.

Mychoice.ca offers a voice for Canada's adult smokers and others who believe in fair laws, government accountability and personal choice.

It is funded by the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Council, but is a registered non-profit organization operating independently on behalf of the approaching 40,000 individuals who have signed up as members.

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