Smoking days are over in Ontario and Quebec as new laws hit bars, restaurants
Just before the clock struck midnight cigarettes were lit en masse, then the ashtrays were collected in bars across Ontario and Quebec - and in one the sombre tune of Taps could be heard.
It was all in an effort to mark smoking bans in public places which came into effect in the two provinces just after midnight. "We just announced at 10 minutes to 12 that you had 10 minutes to smoke before the law took effect and I have never seen so many cigarettes lit simultaneously in my life," said Rachel Osborne, a waitress at Brutopia in Montreal. "It is so smoky in here."
Osborne, a non-smoker, who was already hoarse from her evening, said she "loved the law."
"I'm very, very happy that I will no longer be polluted while I work."
The mood was philosophical next door at Hurley's, an Irish pub.
"It's the best time of the year because it's so nice outside at least you can ease yourself into the fact that you have to smoke outdoors," said Alwyn Rottchafer, a cook who has smoked for about 13 years.
He wasn't sure if he is going to quit but he said he's going to cut down.
"Nobody who smokes is proud to be a smoker," he said. "Nobody is proud to spend eight, 10 bucks a day for a pack of smokes."
In Ontario, some bars came up with innovative ways to welcome the ban.
John Janisse, owner of the Windsor Pub in Windsor, a city that previously had no smoke-free bylaw, said his establishment was to give away souvenir ashtrays to smoking patrons Tuesday night.
"It's going to be somewhat low key," Janisse said. "There are some places that are doing a big 'smoke your brains out' kind of event tonight but we're just going to have a little fun with it."
Peter Kilgour, owner of Kilgour's Bar Meets Grill in Toronto, said he planned to have a trumpeter play Taps - the tune that concludes military funerals - at midnight after rolling back the canopy over the bar's patio for the last time.
"The whole thing is just silly, so I'm just being silly back," he said, adding that he doesn't expect to take much of a financial hit from the ban as he was already operating under Toronto's smoke-free bylaws.
At Gabby's Eatery and Taps, a small downtown Toronto bar and outdoor patio, they gave patrons the same privilege accorded those in front of a firing squad - they let them finish their smokes as the clock struck midnight.
"We don't have to enforce it, the only difference it makes for us is we don't put the awning out," Meaghan Warefield said of the law that has rules on what constitutes a covered room.
"I feel really bad for people with designated smoking rooms because of all the money they invested in it. But it's not an issue for us."
When bans started to hit Ontario communities years ago designated smoking rooms were allowed, but those too are now outlawed.
Student Kieran Bradshaw, who came to Canada from Ireland which already has a smoking ban, conceded the effort in his homeland has paid off.
"Deaths have reduced a long way so we'll see now the rates of cancer here in Canada," he said in Montreal.
The changes are a tougher sell in Quebec than in Ontario, where roughly 90 per cent of residents already live under municipal smoking bans, said Michael Perley, an anti-tobacco activist with the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco.
"Quebec is going to take a big jump forward compared with Ontario," Perley said.
Quebec has the highest percentage of smokers in Canada, with 23 per cent of the province's population lighting up - but down from 34 per cent in 1998, when the government banned smoking in the workplace.
Only 19 per cent of Ontario residents smoke - the second-lowest provincial percentage in Canada.
In Montreal, Francois Damphousse of the Non-Smokers' Rights Association held a news conference Tuesday to celebrate the ban.
"We haven't created any precedent in Quebec," he said. "We're just following in the footsteps of what's been done in many other jurisdictions."
New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Saskatchewan and Manitoba already have total bans on smoking in public places. Nova Scotia's ban takes effect at the end of the year.
Quebec Health Minister Philippe Couillard said the ban in his province would be immediately enforced by 75 undercover inspectors capable of issuing fines up to $10,000.
However, Ontario Health Promotion Minister Jim Watson said his province would allow for a reasonable grace period before issuing fines.
The smoking ban won't affect businesses such as bars and restaurants as badly as some fear, said Geoffrey Fong of the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project at the University of Waterloo.
"There have been scientific studies done.?.?. that have shown in every jurisdiction that has been studied that there is either no negative impact or a positive impact on business that have gone smoke-free," Fong said.
Under the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, only long-term care facilities are permitted to have enclosed smoking areas - something that Watson has said will not be paid for by the province and must meet high ventilation standards.
Both the Ontario and Quebec laws prohibit smoking in all enclosed workplaces and enclosed public places. The major difference between the two laws is that Ontario does not allow smoking on roofed patios.
