VANCOUVER -- She sits at a table outside a Vancouver café, with a cigarette in the ashtray, inhaling the fumes of the passing vehicles.
As she hears of the B.C. government's commitment yesterday to ban smoking in vehicles with children, the middle-aged woman becomes animated. "Smoking has become more of a crime than driving drunk," Marie, who would not give her last name, said yesterday with evident disdain.
She questioned why the government was not taking more aggressive steps to control gas fumes, which she believes do more damage to the environment and children in vehicles than does smoking.
Marie said she has been smoking for decades and has tried unsuccessfully to stop on five different occasions. She attributed her dependency on tobacco to her mother, who smoked when she was pregnant, and chemicals in the cigarettes. She said she would like to break the smoking habit, but she still thinks the government may have the wrong priorities.
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Silver-haired smoker Steve Boyce, who has been lighting up for several decades, "totally agrees" that smoking is not healthy and that secondhand smoke poses a serious danger to the health of others.
But he sounded as if he did not take the new government initiative too seriously. "I cannot imagine how it will be enforced," he said in a brief interview on a street corner. Vancouver does not have enough police to deal with drive-by shootings and other crime in the city, he said. "I question if it is enforceable."
However, the promised ban was welcomed by the Canadian Cancer Society.
"I'm thrilled," said Kathryn Seely, public issues manager for the society's B.C. and Yukon region. Jurisdictions that have adopted similar legislation have not reported any problems with enforcement, she added. "We know of no legal impediment to enforcement," she said, comparing the initiative to seatbelt legislation.
Rob Cunningham, the society's senior policy analyst in Ottawa, said the ban in other jurisdictions has often been used largely to raise public awareness.
Standards vary, depending on the jurisdiction, on what would constitute probable cause for police to believe someone inside a vehicle was smoking, allowing them to pull the vehicle over, Mr. Cunningham said. Tickets for violation of a similar ban have been given out in a province of Australia. But police in California, which also banned smoking in vehicles with children, may have less discretion to stop a car, he said.
Premier Gordon Campbell told reporters in Victoria that the ban would impose fines on people who smoke in vehicles with child passengers. He hopes to have the legislation passed this spring, he said.
"One in five young people today are subjected to smoking in an enclosed area in a car and so we've said ... that we should put children out of that environment. So we are saying to drivers, 'You have a responsibility not to smoke when a child is in the car,' " Mr. Campbell said.
NDP critic Leonard Krog said the Liberal government was hypocritical in promoting the ban after they "mocked" the measure three months ago, when he proposed a ban on smoking in vehicles with children. "This is not about genuine care for children. This is about a government that is out of touch," he said.
The new ban comes days after a Squamish district councillor proposed a ban on smoking at home or while driving when children are around. Municipal staff were to report to council on the proposal in mid-March.
With a report from
Justine Hunter
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