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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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Canada: Health Minister Calls for Total Tobacco Ban [04/10-1]
Excerpts from: Minister calls for total tobacco ban
By JORGE BARRERA OTTAWA SUN [04/09/06]
Health Promotion Minister Jim Watson wants to make cigarettes illegal.
"If I had my druthers I would not want to see tobacco anywhere in Canada," the Ottawa-West Nepean MPP said yesterday while attending the launch of new anti-smoking television and radio ads. "We know it kills people. If I had the ultimate authority to ban tobacco from the province or the country, of course I would."
Watson said it would be up to Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ban cigarettes, but the province could regulate cigarettes like alcohol and sell them only through licensed vendors.
"If that is brought forward ... we (the Ontario government) would look at it," he said.
The province's $3.1-million anti-smoking media campaign is intended to prepare the public for tough regulations that come into effect May 31. The new laws include a ban on smoking in all public places and on patios with a covering. Counter displays and so-called "power walls" of cigarette and tobacco products are to be phased out by 2008.
The province along with the Heart and Stroke Foundation unveiled the TV spots at the Elisabeth Bruyere Health Centre, where anti-smoking advocate Heather Crowe spends her dying days. The TV ads features Crowe and Moe Atallah, her former boss.
'GREAT VICTORY'
Crowe, who appeared with her head shaved and in a wheelchair, is dying from cancer caused by second-hand smoke she inhaled while working as a waitress for 40 years.
"People shouldn't go to work to die," Crowe says in the ad.
Crowe said when the ban comes into effect, it will validate her crusading work.
"It will be a great victory for me," said Crowe, who doubts smokes can be banned.
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