Smoker plans to protest B.C.’s new smoking laws

By Alli Vail - Parksville Qualicum Beach News - May 06, 2008

Roger Godin is planning a protest, cigarette in hand.

“I disagree with the B.C. government on most of the new tobacco laws,” said Godin, a smoker for the past 45 years who has no intention of quitting. “I think it’s against my human rights. Canada is supposed to be a free country.”

He is organizing a protest in Parksville, tentatively slated for June 21, beginning at 10 a.m. Godin isn’t convinced about the negative health effects touted about smoking.

“It depends on the person. I’ve smoked for 45 years. I started young,” Godin said. “I don’t want to quit because it relieves my stress.”

He takes issue with not being allowed to smoke on hospital or government property.

“There are people standing out in the street with oxygen tanks,” Godin said. “If you’re in a psychiatric unit in Nanaimo, you’re not allowed to go outside. I can’t walk down the sidewalk with a cigarette in my hands.”

Although he disagrees with the laws, he doesn’t think children should start smoking.

“I agree that a person shouldn’t smoke in a car with children,” Godin noted. “People shouldn’t smoke around children.”

He said he has to breath in car fumes, and cars give off more fumes then a cigarette would.

So he is hitting the he street for a peaceful protest.

Godin wants people to join his protest. For more information, contact him at 586-8282.

“It’s going to be a peaceful demonstration,” Godin said. “We will all have a cigarette in hand.”

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death and disease, killing more than 37,000 Canadians and 6,000 British Columbians.

The society says cigarette smoking causes about 30 per cent of cancer deaths in Canada and more than 85 per cent of lung cancer cases.

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Smoker plans to protest B.C.’s new smoking laws

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