TORONTO HAS just kicked in with its anti-smoking bylaw, which permits 2 smoker to be fined $2,000 a day. This is like arriving in a hapless country that has been taken over by the Care Bears. At the very Ieast, what has hap- pened is the equivalent of soft-core prohibition. My sympathy lics with the poor smokers, forced out in little, frightened groups, huddling against the icy vortex slipstreaming down between the glass towers. The wind on Bloor Street can get up to 60 miles an hour, it seems, and hardly anybody comments. But imagine trying to suck on the old killer weed under such conditions. Imagine trying to get lit up in the first place! That’s why they have lighters like blow-tor- ches, f guess. =, Te smokers remind me of prisoners. And, indeed, they are. The Occupation has begun, emphiysema- lovers! You are surrounded.’’ Also, because they are only allowed to escape from their workspaces for a couple of minutes at a time, they don't pause to throw on all their winter gear. Why waste precious seconds try- ing (o get a coat off a hanger when you could be outside with a iit-up nicotine stick actually in your mouth? Thus, most of the poor tormented devils are Gut there in shirtsleeves, with no gloves, hands shoved deep into their pockets, cowered together for warmth, sucking hungrily on their smokes. They make growling and whimpering sounds, There isa . sense of moral despair. They have been abandoned. In addition to the wind howling along, delivery trucks and buses roar by, leaving stirred-up der- | vishes of grit dancing eerily along the sidewalks, staggering the smokers — and worse, making; their cigarettes burn down faster! fused to think of a pack of | smokes. Now we have packs of, smokers. Notice how they do bunch together, their resentful eyes darting around with impotent fury as the victorious non-smoking conquering hordes look down at them smirkingly. The non-smokers are always go- ing somewhere or coming from someplace, I note. They are busy, busy, busy. This only enhances the pathos. The smokers, by contrast, are nowhere-going. It is such a y 14625-108th AVE. 4 biks. nerth of Guildford Phone 585-8877 statement, #8 they say in show biz, The smokers remind me of pris- oners. And, indeed, they are. The Occupation has begun, em- physema-lovers! You are sur- rounded. Instead of being herded into concentration camps, of course, the smokers are being headed off from their lemming-like mass march to the lung cancer wards. And this is a Good Thing. Sul, }.am uneasy for democracy. It is such a small fur- ther step to ban using salt or pep- per in a public place, to force beer-drinkers to use straws, or taxi drivers to say: ‘‘Have a nice day.*’ I notice smokers relate different- ty to cach other than we did back in the old days when | was a nico- tine junkic too. | mean, you used to offer people smokes, just like the Indians, who started the whole disgusting business, to make peace. But there was a delicate psychological fandango involved. You didn’t have to ‘“‘bum"’ too many smokes before you crossed a certain threshold where your cred- ibility died. Today, a smoker without a smoke merely has to nod, Less than that — merely has to make the slightest gesture indicating that he or she doesn’t have a smoke on them at the moment, and, presto, the nearest other smoker instantly thrusts a cigarette forward. Now that they are all cast adrift at sea, they have adopted group survival reflexes. They offer smokes heroically now. Yes! With compassion! As one victim helps another. There are stories, | bet, of smokers helping other smokers out ina tight corner by feats of drug- sharing that are so noble and heart-lifting (if lung-collapsing) that it would make a civil liber- tarian cry, It is a sad commentary on human nature that a new excuse for being rude, impossible and pitiless has cropped up in common usage. By this f mean a phrase like “t's in the mail” or “The com- puter broke down."’ People now say ~ oh so sweetly! — *"l'm allergic to smoke.” 1 watch the look in the eye of the smoker who had, up to this point, won permission from the rest of his non-smoking colleagues to sneak at least one puff in every now and then. And along comes somebody with the allergy rap and a cruel glint in their eye. Glad I got it over with years ago. Otherwise } could be out there on that street, with those poor wretches. Unloved. Shunted off to the side. Coughing together @ Wl NORTH VANCOUVER - 1400 MARINE DRIVE 4700 E. HASTINGS 984-0341 Cor, of Hastings & Beta Phone 294-5256 BORNE CEE WVD road link okayed CONSTRUCTION OF the Braemar-Dempsey road link will soon be underway after North Vancouver District Council ap- proved funding of the project . a. Monday. . oe . Second Time Around in Richmond will be closed forever. The link is expected to be com- pleted in May 1989 at a cost of $2.5 million. 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