Smoking in Canada
[1] The use of tobacco by the First Nations in Canada dates back centuries as a sacred plant with immense healing and spiritual benefits.
According to Sharon Cook:[4] The pathfinders who first articulated women’s right to smoke were members of the middle and upper classes who were “untrammelled by conventional notions of decorum” for women, such as actresses, intellectuals, and “new women.” After all, these were the leaders of the 19th- and early 20th-century enfrachisement campaigns and other public-sphere campaigns which demanded the right to enter the professions, hold membership in artistic associations, and much else.
The same process was at work in the masculine world of smoking with elitist elements arguing first for snuff, then cigars, pipes, and finally cigarettes.
Cook argues that the tobacco companies were looking for large profits which depended on sales to a much larger base of working women.
Thus, "The combination of cheap prices, reliable and theatrical possibilities as a wardrobe prop, [short] duration of the smoking experience and workplace norms of peer associations...explain cigarettes’ growing popularity over cigars and pipes for working women after World War I.
[9] Alberta banned smoking in public spaces and workplaces, including within 5 metres (20') of doors, windows, and outdoor air intakes, on 1 January 2008.
[11] As of 1 January 2009, cigarette sales in Alberta have been banned in all stores containing a pharmacy, at post-secondary educational institutions, and in healthcare facilities.
[18] British Columbia banned smoking in all public spaces and workplaces including, as of March 2008,[19] within a 6-metre (20') radius of doors, open windows and air intakes.
[20] Additionally, all commercial displays of tobacco visible to people under the age of 19 was banned in public areas under the same legislation.
[23] An act banning smoking in vehicles when children under 16 are present became law July 15, 2010, and applies to all lighted tobacco products.
[26] Newfoundland and Labrador banned smoking within public places such as day cares, schools, taxis, hospitals, retail stores, and recreational facilities in 1994.
In 2002, through an amendment to the Smoke-free Environment Act, smoking was banned in food establishments, shopping malls, transportation terminals, hotel/motel common areas, games arcades, public libraries and boys and girls clubs.
In 2005, smoking was banned in all public spaces and workplaces, under the province's Smoke-Free Environment Act, including licensed liquor establishments and bingo halls.
[27] Sales of tobacco are prohibited in places such as in retail stores that have a pharmacy, on university and college campuses, or recreational facilities.
As of January 1, 2015, smoking is prohibited province-wide on all bar and restaurant patios and within a 20-meter (60') radius of all playgrounds and sports fields.
Hamilton banned smoking on all municipal properties, including parks, playgrounds, beaches, sports fields on May 31, 2012.
The motion requests a review of the issue of cigarette butt litter, with consideration by the end of the fourth quarter of 2019 about introducing new regulations.
[31] Smoking is banned within a 9 metre (30') radius of the entrances of social services institutions such as hospitals, community centres, CEGEP, colleges and universities.
All public organizations, such as hospitals and post-secondary education institutions, must adopt a smoke-free and smoking cessation policy and report to the government.
Since May 26, 2016, smoking and e-cigarettes are banned on restaurant and bar patios and terraces, playgrounds and sports fields, including a 9 m (30 ft) radius.
As of November 2016, smoking was banned within a 9 m (30 ft) radius of all doors, windows and air intakes of any building open to the public.
[45] As of 2021, Quebec and Alberta are the only two provinces or territories which permit cigar lounges or any ventilated smoking rooms outside of nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
There are fines of up to $10 000 for violation of the Tobacco Control Act which bans smoking in all public areas, indoor and outdoor, including clubs for veterans.
[52] Nunavut banned smoking in public spaces and workplaces, including within three metres (10') of entrances and exits to those buildings on May 1, 2004.
The Government of Canada legislated the mandatory display of warning messages on all cigarette packaging, including images depicting the long-term consequences of smoking, and has also banned tobacco advertising.
The Government of Ontario sponsors a program named Stupid, with an accompanying website stupid.ca, that seeks to educate adolescents about the danger of smoking.
[56] The blue ribbon campaign was started in 1999 by the students at Hugh Boyd Secondary School in British Columbia and has gone national now.
