CARAE EAR URT OT ETE SANT AASB REEL AOR IOUT UNIS CEH TE AE DIB I NEL AAI TRAN EOE SIN TS AUT EEL MUSE LS OL SIS LIBR CATE HENS IES EON NC LACE E GREAT SCOTT! When West Vancouver says it will aim at a 100% smoke-free restau- rant environment by next year you know there’s no hope. It’s joining the mad campaign to equate smokers ‘with the Airborne. No wonder we have lunatics run- ning loose on the streets, ethnic groups dictating library policies, abortion on demand, and a condom culture in the schools. It’s a case of juin the happy throng. So, bullied by doctors who like getting their names in the ~ papers, the municipalities fall into the anti-smoking line and salute. If those smoke-devils resist, put them in the media stocks and throw rotten eggs at them. That's the deal. Mind you, it’s not that I want anyone actually blowing the stuff into my phiz. The foul weed has _ fever touched my lips. | prefer other ways of killing myself, But T do like a bit of logic. 1 am not arguing that smokers do ~ not kill themselves. Often, they do. But lots of peopie kill themselves. Joggers and boozers, for instance, and people who go for walks up Seymour Mountain, not.to mention ~'steak lovers and sex maniacs. ., But it is my belief “that the health fascists are wrong when they _ claim that the so-called ‘*sidestream effect — a ‘wisp of smoke from some guy sitting ina f ‘restaurant —isadeadly =“ _ thing and that smokers should therefore stay on / the street. .. , + Afthey were right, - yours truly would have been in his box long ago. I survived for decades in smoke-filled newsrooms. And my . parents filled our house with fumes. ‘To get any fresh air { had to stick’ my” . The health fascists claim that 50 people died last year from side-- . stream effects in B.C., a “statistic” “echoed loudly by the confonnist ~-* press, But how can anyone tell? - Did doctors sit and watch them’ as they inhaled the deadly gas? Even other hand if they did, what about ail the other gases in the air? Carbon monoxide, for instance, Who's to say that ‘Ciga- rette smoke was the culprit?” If they are worried about the harm some people are doifig to oth- ers, why don’t they ban, the automo- bile and go back to the horse’? In 1993, the last year for which full figures are available, 512 people were killed in car‘accidents in B.C. and another 46,952 were injured. How's that for‘harm? On top of that there were 93,819 accidents, ut goodness | knows what cost, What-about AIDS? The same people, who rant on about sidestream 66 If those smoke-devils resist, put SL, . . them in the media stocks and throw rot- “ten eggs at them. That’s the deal. 99 effect don’t seem to mind letting the Dr. Peters of our world stalk the restaurants. ; We even welcome them as refugees. Ditto with TB sufferers. Yet a single cough from someone with a new strain of TB sitting near you on a bus can send you into hos- pital and perhaps to Kingdom “; Come. . There are ‘medical studies that claim ordinary tap water can be twice as carcinogenic as second: hand smoke. Do you have a budgie bird? In 1992 it was stated in the British Medical Journal that as far as gel- ting cancer was concerned people were more at risk from keeping pet hirds than from inhaling that side- stream stuff. And where are all those human rights fanatics? Surely it is a human right for smokers to be able to sit in their patch of a restaurant having a peaceful puff. Or is it only non- smokers who have rights? {tis true that tobacco is not a health food. It is also true that many health foods are not health foods. Too much fruit can give you the trots and make you cross-eyed. There's something else that makes me suspicious of the health fuscists’ motives. There's money in their madness. Government money. How else do you think those whole-page ads get into our newspapers? Will Finance Minister Paul Martin cut them off and thus help to reduce the deficit? Don't bet on it. Then there are the class actions mounted against the tobacco cornpa- nies by former smokers who smell a buck. In the U.S. a judge has given the OK for tuillions of for- mer smokers to sue. But I say that if they wanted to smoke and have developed a bad cough it's their own damned fault. The Australians, who used to be real Marlboru Men, have actually offered com- pensation to veterans who have bad chests because “fags” (as dis- tinct from faggots) were sckd in the can-_ teens during the war. What's going on, cobber? _ The actions of the Smoke Police make no sense, Not unless it also makes sense for drunks to sue dis- tillers-‘and brewers on account of the. way booze can give people the DTs. Nothing's going to change, of course, Lemming-like, we follow the crowd. And as West Van Councillor Andy Danyliu has said, people will have to go to Surrey for a smoke. KEN BAXTER LAWYER 24 Yeors Expelence a LONSDALE QUAY NORTH VANCOUVER 988-6321 DRAPERIES BY S. & SON CUSTOM LAURSEN f DRAPERIES, ‘TRACKS AN VALANCES Labour $8.50 per panel unlined, $9.50 lined. CUSTOM BEDSPREADS & BLINDS At low, low prices. For FREE Estimates call:987-2966. (Ask about Seniors’ Discounts) : * Serving the North Shore for 24 years Defleuk-Saxelby Insurance Services Inc. 105-200 West Espiande,. “North Vancouver (Located beneath Famous Players Theatre) | ' CRUISE HOLIDAYS & PRINCESS CRUISES . requests your attendance at a Gala Evening where “EAST MEETS WEST” — from the Orient to the Caribbean ' Tuesday - March 14, 1995 A Very Special Place for a Very Special Event Space Limited — RSVP Required Advance tickets available 926-7245 2383 MARINE ORIVE WEST VANCOUVER "I's More Than A Cruise — It's the Love Boat” = ue 0 i rel Lone mivak hoe a RICHARDSON GREENSHIELDS Suite 911 ~ 100 Park Royal South West Vancouver V7T 1A2 Phone: 981-2300 ‘ Call us fora free RASP guide. Our Annual Show Sale — Save February 20 through April L 1995. OTHER sizes-_ ‘OTHER SAVINGS - ~ Also available’ in Twin, Double, Covered mattress: featuring our 6” high- density Royal foam... os 1323 Marine Drive North Vancouver B. C. - - Norgate Pl. (ne near Canadian Tire) . Tel: 980-8813. t REG. ‘$244. 98 | | SAVE $45 _