Are appalled with what we see as the federal government’s attempt to limit the choice of responsible adults. Bill C-32 is an egregious affront to our personal freedoms and an irrational attempt to control youth smoking for the following reasons:

1. Flavoured tobacco wraps and the “little cigars” so deplored by the legislation are already heavily controlled through the existing Tobacco Act and countless pieces of provincial anti-smoking legislation. Sale to minors is already prohibited; any minors who actually consume flavoured tobacco wraps, little cigars, or any tobacco are doing so illegally. This is a distribution and enforcement problem — not a demand one.

2. Further, the volume requirement requested by the bill — essentially prohibiting the sale of single “little cigars” — is equally nonsensical and shows how out of touch this legislation is with reality. The only foreseeable result of the requirement that “little cigars” and blunt wraps be sold in packages of 20 is increased youth tobacco use, insomuch that the larger volumes illegally acquired by youth will result in a black market surplus, thus requiring an increase in demand to reach market equilibrium. This means more youth smokers, not less. How is the government so utterly unaware of this simple economic fact?

3. Not only does this bill fail miserably in preventing youth from consuming tobacco, it is immensely harmful to consumer choice. It is a piece of legislation that has been clearly written without any knowledge of current industry or culture trends in relation to the topic. Along with preventing youth from acquiring tobacco products, it also limits the choice of consumers, who may choose to pursue flavoured tobacco products such as single-unit “little cigars” over the larger packages of cigarettes. As such, it may push many lighter smokers into heavier use by limiting their choice and forcing them to purchase larger volumes of tobacco.

4.  The removal of the exemption in which tobacco advertisements may be printed in periodicals with a greater than 85% adult readership is troubling as well. This is government encroachment into independent media’s ability to sustain itself through advertising revenue, especially when the periodicals already almost exclusively serve a demographic that can already legally purchase tobacco products. What does the government hope to gain from this? What do the people of Canada have to gain from this?

In introducing this legislation, the Harper Conservatives have treated small business, retail, media and adult consumers like children. We the undersigned thus hope it will be unsurprising next election when we refuse to use our votes to treat the Harper Conservatives like adults — failing the total abandonment of Bill C-32.

-Ændrew Rininsland,
Managing Editor, Hotbox Magazine

Petition in Word .doc format