{"id":491,"date":"2006-05-17T12:27:00","date_gmt":"2006-05-17T12:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/?p=491"},"modified":"2006-05-17T12:27:00","modified_gmt":"2006-05-17T12:27:00","slug":"no-smoking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/2006\/05\/17\/no-smoking\/","title":{"rendered":"No smoking"},"content":{"rendered":"

In August of 2001, almost five years ago, the city of Ottawa banned smoking in all workplaces \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not just offices, but restaurants, bars, and (gasp!) bingo halls. People said the ban would cause restaurants to go bankrupt as patrons fled across the river to Quebec; they<\/a> said the hospitality industry in the city would never survive. Turns out they were wrong<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two weeks from today, the entire province of Ontario (population 12.5M, about 1\/3 of the entire population of Canada) will ban smoking<\/a> in all workplaces and enclosed spaces – restaurants, bars, schools, private clubs, healthcare facilities, sports arenas, entertainment venues, work vehicles and offices including government buildings. The initiative is called Smoke Free Ontario<\/a>, and I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wonderful.<\/p>\n

You will not be able to smoke in the common areas of apartment buildings and condominiums. You won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be able to smoke in a parking garage. You won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be able to smoke on an outdoor patio if there is any kind of shelter, including even a plastic tarp stretched overhead. And, if you run a private daycare in your home, you cannot smoke in your home \u00e2\u20ac\u201c even while the kids are not there.<\/p>\n

And as if that weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough, there will be a private members bill proposed in the Ontario Legislature to ban smoking in a private vehicle<\/a> when children are present.<\/p>\n

Bravo to the government of Ontario. Bravo!<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I think there are going to be a lot of problems implementing this legislation. Although there will be fines and penalties, Ontario is an awfully large province with a very small amount of resources for enforcement. And I feel genuine sympathy for those who are trying hard to quit but haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been able to do it yet.<\/p>\n

Even though I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been raised in an era of a paternalistic government and believe in collective social responsibility, I can see where some people see this legislation as a draconian infringement on personal rights and freedoms. But your right to smoke ends when you exhale your smoke into my clean air.<\/p>\n

In the five years since Ottawa became smoke-free, it seems we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve adjusted<\/a> pretty well from an economic standpoint. And it seems like a lifetime since we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had to deal with drifting smoke in restaurants and wretched-smelling clothes after a night on the town. (I used to go out! I did, I did!) <\/p>\n

I love the fact that we can go practically anywhere now and not be exposed to second-hand smoke, and I applaud any measures that discourage people from starting. Smoke ’em if you got ’em… but not around me, thanks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In August of 2001, almost five years ago, the city of Ottawa banned smoking in all workplaces \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not just offices, but restaurants, bars, and (gasp!) bingo halls. People said the ban would cause restaurants to go bankrupt as patrons fled across the river to Quebec; they said the hospitality industry in the city would … Continue reading “No smoking”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}