Why cigs? Why not beef?The vagaries of the precautionary principle

Toronto Star ^ | May 28, 2006 | CHRISTINE SISMONDO

[tbird5]

On Wednesday, Toronto smokers will be forced off the minuscule pieces of public real estate to which they still have access: designated, separately ventilated smoking rooms, cigar bars and, to most everyone's surprise, many outdoor patios.

The Ontario-wide legislation expanded last month to include the great outdoors, making it one of the most aggressive anti-smoking laws in Canada.

Smoking will be prohibited on patios with any sort of awning, any kind of built-in overhang (even when it is a permanent feature of the building), or even when patio umbrellas are deemed to be too close together.

Bar owners, let me tell you, are sick and tired of this particular discussion.

Let me relate their basic position, since they have a point:

As the polar ice caps melt, as bird flu pandemic looms, as Canada just had its fifth case of mad cow disease, Ontario's latest contribution to the safety of the world is to send inspectors around measuring spaces in between patio umbrellas to make sure that no tiny whiff of smoke might be momentarily trapped underneath an overlap, threatening the health of some innocent, pristine lung underneath.

Has that whiff of smoke ever been proven to dart down, infiltrate the lung and cause untold damage? All the studies on passive smoking are inconclusive. It may well be bad for us. We just don't know for sure.

But smoking laws in Ontario have been designed in accordance with the "precautionary principle," an up-and-coming legal doctrine that holds potentially harm-causing agents guilty before they are proven innocent.

[FlingWingFlyer]

When the Communist, government thugs start banning smoking OUTSIDE, it's no longer about that mythical "second-hand smoke." It's something else.

[umgud]

Yup, don't forget your barstool safety belt either.

[Savage Beast]

Make 'em wear a scarlet S. The Left are the neo-Puritans of the 21st century.

[RandallFlagg]

PING!

[Mears]

We are living in a world gone mad.

[Mears]

"But earlier this year, the Canadian-beef-banning French government backed down from a proposed smoking ban. Parisians can still smoke until they're blue in the face on Rue Saint Germain. "

---

Looks like we smokers will be spending our tourist dollars in France.

[Jaysun]

.....the "precautionary principle," an up-and-coming legal doctrine that holds potentially harm-causing agents guilty before they are proven innocent.

Once the "precautionary principle" takes hold and is applied to things such as technology, medicine, farming, "global warming", trade, and everything else we're all f***ed.

It's the perfect liberal idea because it creates the very problem it's supposed to correct by causing irreversible and unpredictable consequences.

[singfreedom]

Amen. That has to be one of the dumbest laws I've ever read (well, next to our new Senate immigration "proposal" maybe).

[tortoise]

Once the "precautionary principle" takes hold and is applied to things such as technology, medicine, farming, "global warming", trade, and everything else we're all f***ed.

Big bump.

It has not really reached the public consciousness, but that term -- "precautionary principle" -- is the new face and weapon of leftwing socialist activism. If you did not like what happened when they discovered the weapon of judicial activism, you really won't like how they are planning on using this meme.

In short, it is the idea that no new technology of any type can be researched or developed without express permission from a regulatory body first. All science and research is forbidden unless explicitly allowed, assuming it supports a broader social and "ethical" agenda supported by the government(s). You will have to "prove" that such research and science supports their ideology and agenda, or you will not be allowed to do it. They desire absolute control over technological development so that they can steer certain outcomes.

This should scare the bejeezus out of anyone that cares about the future, as it would absolutely destroy what is left of the country. Anyone that adopts or uses the "precautionary principle" as a guiding political philosophy is ipso facto evil. This is on the horizon, and many people will find its specious reasoning seductive. It must be crushed at all costs, for the sake of the human race.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

It's surprising to see such a sensible article in the Toronto Star.

The latest restrictions won't have any health benefits whatsoever.

So far, the "precautionary principle&quote+ in practice means paying an immense insurance premium just "in case" some paranoiac moonbat's doomsday scenario comes to pass.

Maybe the "precautionary principle" needs to be applied more widely -- to some previously overlooked scenarios. Here are some possibilities:

* drill ANWAR just "in case" hostile regimes withhold supplies;
* preemptively invade Iran and N. Korea just "in case" they go nuclear; * preemptively invade Syria, just "in case" they're not paying attention; * build a fence along the Mexican border, just "in case" uncontrolled illegal immigration erodes security;
* tap calls to Muslim countries just "in case" there's a terrorist on the line;
* etc.

[SheLion]

[Jaysun]

This should scare the bejeezus out of anyone that cares about the future, as it would absolutely destroy what is left of the country. Anyone that adopts or uses the "precautionary principle" as a guiding political philosophy is ipso facto evil. This is on the horizon, and many people will find its specious reasoning seductive. It must be crushed at all costs, for the sake of the human race.

It's hard to describe the implications of such an idea without sounding like a deranged nut. It really is the most dangerous scheme ever imagined. Europe has already started to embrace it.

[383rr]

Big Brother is measuring the distance between patio table umbrellas....... Soon to be measuring the one on your back porch.


"We are living in a world gone mad."

I think mears summed it up pretty well.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!