Posted on 02/19/2003 11:34:33 AM PST by jodorowsky
The onus will be on owners and employers to prevent smoking in public places and workplaces when London's new smoke-free bylaws take effect July 1, the city's medical officer of health says. Under the current bylaw that prohibits smoking in restaurants but permits it in bars, owner-operators can be charged only if they fail to provide proper signs stating smoking is prohibited, Dr. Graham Pollett said.
If the signs are up and a restaurant patron is smoking, the patron is charged.
But when the smoking ban is extended July 1 to public places and workplaces, it will be the owner-operator of a public place and the employer who will face charges if the ban is violated. The smoker could also be charged, Pollett said. The maximum fine is $5,000.
Meanwhile, talk of bars launching a legal challenge against the smoking bylaws is just talk, said Earle Taylor of the London Licensed Restaurant Association. "Obviously, the first question is can one launch a legal challenge," Taylor said.
"I don't know how serious anybody is but as an organization, we're certainly not talking of proceeding in that area. It would be a costly enterprise and I'm not sure that's a possibility." Mark Dencev, owner of the Richmond Tavern who led a protest march to city hall Monday against the bylaws, said he's heard a challenge may be considered "but I'm not a party to anything official yet."
Still smarting from city council's refusal in a 12-7 vote Monday to permit designated smoking rooms, Dencev said he's warned his 12- member staff three will likely face layoffs when the bylaw takes effect. "The bylaw means the end of my business," Dencev said of the daytime crowd, primarily veterans and pensioners who frequent the hotel to smoke and drink. "The younger crowd at night who come in for the live music might adjust but the daytime crowd is my bread and butter," Dencev said.
But one bar that went smoke-free a year ago reports an upsurge in business.
Cathy Redmond, a server for more than three years at the Wave -- one of the pubs at the University of Western Ontario -- said the on-campus bar has been smoke-free for a year and business is better. She credits that primarily on better promotions, as opposed to being smoke-free.
Bar manager Dan Smith agrees.
And he looks forward to the July 1 smoking ban, because bars at Western will have a level playing field with other bars in the city.
". . . Now, people have a choice of going downtown or coming here," Smith said. "When other bars in the city go smoke-free, then I've got an opportunity to fairly compete."
Gary McRae, general manager of the Western Fair Association, said both his operations and the slot lounge support the non-smoking bylaw.
"The expansion of the slot lounge under construction now is being designed for non-smoking," McRae said.
"There's concern about the impact on business, but a smoking ban in public places is long overdue, so we've been planning for a non-smoking facility." As for enforcement, Pollett said retired police officers may be hired to assist.
Unlike the current bylaw that is enforced by public health inspectors, the new public places and workplaces bylaws can be enforced by a London police officer or anyone appointed as a municipal tobacco enforcement officer by the health unit or city council.
Pollett said other cities have used retired police officers with success.
He said bars and workplaces will be the focus of an education campaign involving mailings and visits. The London bylaws are based on an Ottawa model that Pollett said has been challenged in court, but to date has withstood challenges up to the Superior Court of Justice.
I definitely won't be patronizing London's so-called hospitality industry any more if they don't let me smoke... let them go out of business if they aren't willing to break this law.
I am really looking forward to life in the future...The non-smokers do not see the demon that they have created in their own lives.Do they think these people will just stop.
Screw 'em. It's up to the owner of the business, not busybody bigots chasing the popular delusion of the day.
This matter is not subject to legislation, among civilized men.
Property rights, respect for private property, and the prerogative of its owner, used to be a tenet of conservatives.
But who cares, bar owners are nobodies, nothing, mere individuals, compared to the Health of das Volk.
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