Smokers Rights Canada

“Sex, Lies and Cigarettes”, a documentary film by Christof Putzel, and aired in the “Vanguard” series on Current TV, is now available on YouTube.

Errol Povah, President of Airspace Action on Smoking and Health, explains why we should be at least as outraged by the tobacco industry as by Bank of America, Bear Stearns, and the Koch brothers.

Get MP3 (4.0 MB | 4:20 min)

Occupy Vancouver starts at the Vancouver Art Gallery on October 15

Click here to buy pizzas for Occupy Wall Street activists

Tobacco Laborers Denied Basic Human Rights in the U.S. Article by Kenneth Quinnell at Crooks and Liars

Child labour: the tobacco industry’s smoking gun Article by Kristin Palitza in The Guardian

Article by Kenneth Quinnell at Crooks and Liars: Tobacco Laborers Denied
Basic Human Rights in the U.S.

Includes this video:

Excerpt: “The report [by Oxfam and Farm Labor Organizing
Committee], ‘A State of Fear,’ shows that one in four tobacco farm workers
is paid less than the federal minimum wage. Many suffer from nicotine
poisoning after absorbing nicotine through their bare skin.” Link to Oxfam report

An excellent comment: “I’ll bet those workers only have
$400,000 after feeding their families and paying all their expenses, too.
What kind of life is that?”

CKNW’s Bruce Allen hasn’t gotten over the reality that the Celebration of Light is no longer called the Benson and Hedges Symphony of Fire. This is Airspace’s response to something idiotic that Allen said on his Reality Check for July 29.

 Get MP3 (1.8 MB | 1:48 min)

An election message from Auntie Tobacco at www.combatobacco.org:

On February 1, 2011, Bruce Allen broadcast an editorial about smoke-free housing on CKNW that had multiple factual errors. Errol Povah of Airspace provides this podcast in response to it.

Get MP3 (4 MB | 3:48 min)

The following is my response to a National “we-[especially-Terrence-Corcoran]-would-never-accept-a-dime-from-the-tobacco-industry” Post article entitled, “Shaming smokers makes it harder to quit: study.”

In short, the smokescreen, pardon the pun… I mean, the article… is about a study/report by a group of UBC researchers. The very first sentence of the article sets the [bullshit] tone: “Years of anti-smoking laws and campaigns have amounted to a public shaming of smokers… ” (emphasis mine, throughout). And the crap continues…

One study subject whined, “You really are labeled as a bad person if you smoke.”

And Kirsten Bell, lead author of a paper just published on the issue, joined the chorus of whiners, claiming, “People are made to feel really, really bad about their smoking and are treated quite badly…”! In her very next breath, however, Bell provides a very small glimmer of truth when she says, “They [smokers] feel really negatively about themselves…”

Bell goes on to suggest that there is some sort of a contrast between “how smokers are treated and the NON-JUDGMENTAL, ‘harm-reduction’ approach now widely applied by public health to people with other addictions.”…the clear — and FALSE — implication being that we (anti-tobacco activists) and/or “public health” people are ‘judgmental’ toward smokers.

My point, as alluded to by Gar Mahood (Non-Smokers’ Rights Association, Toronto): Whether it be the ‘OPINIONS’ of smokers themselves, their drug [nicotine] dealers (the pushers in pinstripes at the tobacco industry) or any of the industry’s well-paid (albeit with blood-stained money) puppets, ‘the tobacco-control movement has NOT tried to stigmatize smokers, individually or collectively.’

As smoking bans continue to expand, many smokers (and even some non-smoking ‘sympathizers’) – especially those who belong to so-called “smokers’ rights” groups – have developed a major “Woe is me!” (or, “Woe are we!”) mentality. They are whiners who want all of the “freedoms”, “choices” and “rights” that were once thought to be part of the smoking ritual, but none of the responsibilities that normally go along with all such freedoms/choices/rights. NONE WHATSOEVER!

Support Errol Povah in his Journey for a Tobacco Free World: http://tobaccofreeworld.ca/

I would also suggest that many smokers have a serious love/hate relationship with smoking, cigarettes (often thought of as their ‘best friends’… always there for them, through good times and bad, blah, blah, blah) and, ultimately, themselves! Deep down inside, many of them desperately want to quit, but won’t/can’t…for one valid — or, most likely, INVALID — reason or another.

Bottom line: No legitimate anti-tobacco activist that I know – and I know many of them, from all over the world – is the least bit interested in the “public shaming” of smokers…or has ever ‘labeled’ any smoker as a “bad person.” Nor has anyone I know ever “treated [any smoker] quite badly” or in a ‘judgmental’ way…unless, for some warped reason, you somehow consider reasonable and ever-expanding smoking bans to be part of treating smokers badly.
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A story by Carole MacNeil on CBC News: Sunday documenting the cave-in by the Federal government on the prosecution of the tobacco industry for corporate involvement in criminal activity. Features interviews with Neil Collishaw of Physicians for a Smoke-free Canada and former tobacco executive Paul Finlayson.

Part 1(Quicktime video, 14 minutes)

Part 2 (Quicktime video, 8 1/2 minutes)

This letter appeared, with no response, on mychoice.ca:

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LETTER FROM IMPERIAL TOBACCO

Dear Arminda,

As you know, Imperial Tobacco Canada has advised MyChoice / MonChoix that regretfully it will be unable to continue its support of the organization in 2009. The growth of illicit trade in Canada, which now tops 40% in Quebec and Ontario, has forced the company to refocus its strategic objectives. Imperial Tobacco Canada has been very pleased with the success of MyChoice over the last four years. In 2004, Imperial Tobacco Canada and the other members of the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers’ Council (CTMC) provided financial support for MyChoice to become a reality in Ontario. In 2005, the CTMC assisted MonChoix in Québec to become active. In 2008, Imperial Tobacco Canada decided to continue its financial support of these organizations when the other members of the CTMC dropped out.

Imperial Tobacco Canada has watched with pride as MyChoice and MonChoix grew from a concept to a virtual organization with over 50,000 members. With you as its president, MyChoice / MonChoix has become a rational and clear voice for the rights of smokers with governments and the Canadian media. It is our hope that you will be able to continue your valuable work representing the views of smokers.

Imperial Tobacco Canada hopes that MyChoice / MonChoix will continue to articulate the opinions and views of smokers to the greater society and we wish you and the organization good luck in all your future endeavours.

Thank you.

Imperial Tobacco Canada

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No response from Ms. Mota.

Article by Keith Fraser in The Province: Tenant seeks injunction to stop neighbour smoking, or click here for a PDF.

Mina Erian Mina, a retired actor living in Vancouver’s West End, has suffered various health problems, including respiratory injuries, bronchospasm, reduced chest expansion, chest tightness, aggravation of coronary artery disease, loss of sleep, fatigue and anxiety due to a smoking neighbour.