yonny,
I’ve been able to locate a fair amount of information about
Vancouver’s smoking ban and the political and societal pressures
around it.
The Law Itself
==============
There’s a state-published page called “Smoking By-law” (
http:/vrhb.bc.ca/EnvironHealth/smoking.htm ) which outlines much
information with regard to the city’s smoking laws. According to the
site restaurants and public work places first went smoke-free in 1996,
and in April 2000 the law was amended to include bars, clubs, casinos,
and the like. The only exceptions are outdoor patios and special
pre-approved rooms.
A PDF containing the complete text of the bi-law can be found here:
City of Vancouver Health By-Law No. 6580
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/bylaws/13376.htm
Unfortunately, the links on the “smoking by-law” page related to early
press about the law and a (semi) recent court case are dead. They may
be of use if they ‘go live’ again at a later date.
History
=======
A regular online publication known as “Breather’s Digest” published a
detailed description of the Clean Air initiative, announcing that it
had been passed and who supported it in the spring of 1996. It has
much information about the “good” and “bad” guys who played parts in
the decision. ( http://airspace.bc.ca/bd0596.html ).
In addition, you can find much reference to the planning and
support-raising which seem to have played a key role in the passing of
the law in the issue from April of 1995 (
http://airspace.bc.ca/bd0495.html ).
Also, an earlier issue from the same year describes early lobbying and
the presentation of at least one study to the city counsel which
suggested that a law banning smoking would not reduce restaurant
sales. This letter also calls for support in a number of ways to help
get the law passed ( http://airspace.bc.ca/news0295.html ). Much more
information can be found in the archives of Breather’Digest (
http://airspace.bc.ca/bdlinks.html ) and Airspace, the non-profit
which publishes it and claims to be the oldest anti-tobacco org in BC
( http://airspace.bc.ca/ )
An interesting side-note: a publication exists online which was
compiled in Vancouver in September of 1995 which argued that in fact
the smoking ban would negatively affect restaurant sales. No doubt
this was a part of the debate before the law passed in 1996. The
publication is presented by FORCES, a smoking pro-choice website (
http://193.78.190.200/evhosp/vancrest/vancrest.htm ).
Finally, for fun, the City of Vancouver maintains an archive of press
releases and has archived the original press release from the fall of
‘96:
Smoking By-law Provisions Start December 1 (November 28, 1996)
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/newsreleases/NRsmokingbylaw3.htm
Court Challenges
================
According to Airspace, there’s a month-long hearing underway right now
in Vancouver in a high-security courtroom. Airspace thinks it will be
quite some time before any decision is made, however, as the tobacco
industry has lots of resources for appeals. This comes from a posting
dated November 4, 2002, on their main page ( http://airspace.bc.ca/ ).
The city of Vancouver has archived a press release from October 31,
1996, which states frankly that a challenge to the original law was
dismissed by the B.C. Supreme court and that the ban would go on as
planned ( http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/newsreleases/NRsmokingbylaw2.htm
). After searching the “reason for judgment database”, a service of
the British Columbia Superior Courts, I believe I have located the
case mentioned in the press release. A lengthy overview and judgment
can be found here ( http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb%2Dtxt/sc/96/14/s96%2D1475.txt
).
I was also able to locate another court case held in October of 2001
concerning the enforcement of the by-law: (
http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb%2Dtxt/sc/01/13/2001bcsc1373.htm )
Finally, The Canadian Lung Association mentions another lawsuit in
February of 1999 which the city won as well (
http://www.lung.ca/ca/articles/smokingbans.html ). Searching the
archive I found what I believe is that case
(http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb%2Dtxt/sc/99/01/s99%2D0115.txt ), and
as you will see it states that the responsibility for enforcing the
By-law sits squarely on the restaurant or business owners/managers.
According to the article at lung.ca, Victoria (B.C.’s capital) used
this legislation to change their own enforcement laws.
Search Strategy
===============
Google:
vancouver smoking law
Supreme Court vancouver smoking by-law –marijuana
Other search services:
Reasons for Judgement Database (BC Superior Courts)
http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/Search/Queryhit.htm
I hope this information helps you. If I misunderstood something, part
of my answer isn't clear, a link doesn't work, or for any other reason
you need clarification, I'll be more than happy to follow up.
-gentryunderwood |
Clarification of Answer by
gentryunderwood-ga
on
26 Nov 2002 23:16 PST
Hey yonny,
I just checked with the researcher guidelines (they outline what we
can and can't do if we want to keep our jobs) and unfortunately I'm
restricted from posting major chunks of content into an answer:
"Researchers must not copy any material from any Web site or other
source in answering any Question. Researchers may quote or paraphrase
short passages of text, but only if necessary, and only if the
Researcher includes in the answer the author and source of such
materials (including a link to the Web site, if any)."
That said, let me see what I can do to help you get a view of
airspace.
Hmmm... I just checked the site to see what I could find and it's down
for me too. That's actually a good sign, as it most likely means it
went down between the first and second times you looked at it (what
did you do?...heehee), and will be back up shortly.
In the meantime, you might take advantage of a nifty feature of
google: caching.
Go to Google's site or use the Toolbar if you have it installed (
http://toolbar.google.com/ ), and paste the URL of the site you wish
to go to into the search box. Google should report one 'hit' for your
search, namely the page you're looking for. Below that you'll see a
number of bullet points, and the first one contains a link to a cache
of the page on google's site. It's not perfect -- you can't see images
and you can't follow links on the page (though you can right-click
them, 'copy shortcut', and paste that into Google), but it's a great
way to get to information that's no longer available or is temporarily
offline.
Here are links to searches for each of the airspace sites mentioned in
my answer:
Breathers' Digest - Spring 1996
://www.google.com/search?q=http://airspace.bc.ca/bd0596.html
Breathers' Digest - April 1995
://www.google.com/search?q=http://airspace.bc.ca/bd0495.html
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