We have chosen to honour Bruce Watson, a tireless anti-tobacco campaigner, by naming this day after him. We would also like again thank Anne Landman, another Colorado anti-tobacco activist, for loaning us her "Joe Chemo" costume a few years ago.

Vancouver, B.C. - On May 22, Heather Crowe succumbed to lung cancer as a result of working in smoky restaurants for years, even though she never smoked a day in her life. She is considered by many to be one of the most important individuals to influence governments across Canada to protect workers and the public from second-hand smoke. "Residents and workers in Quebec and Ontario will benefit from Heather's advocacy efforts as 100% smoke-free legislation is implemented by the end of May," stated Bobbe Wood, President and CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of B.C. & Yukon. "They can thank Heather for her selfless efforts in helping make this happen."

Knight v. Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited judgement on Feb. 8, 2005: http://www.canlii.org/bc/cas/bcsc/2005/2005bcsc172.html
BC Court of Appeal ruling on May 11, 2006: http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/Jdb-txt/CA/06/02/2006BCCA0235.htm

Is there a solution?

I was back home after three days at the Mayo Clinic, and I sat with my wife, having decided on an evening of television. To this end we looked in the morning paper and saw the listing for the story of Bette Davis, coming on at 9 p.m. This was appealing, inasmuch as when I was about 15, I fancied my future as Mr. Bette Davis -- though that was a contingent romance, if Betty Hutton would not have me. And it was especially embittering given that Bette married just about everybody else. So I wound up with the mother of the author of Thank You for Smoking.

In any case, we were seated, and after a flurry of investigations to discover on what TV channel Turner Classic Movies appears in New York (answer: 82) we were staring at her. That lovely head, lips all but closed, smoke filtering out of her mouth, and when the smoke was finally gone, she began to speak in her special way, contemptuous of everybody and everything. What followed (for as long as we stayed with her) were shots dating back to 1930. She was always with a cigarette in her hand, calling to mind the recent movie about Edward R. Murrow, which is one long shot of smoke-filled rooms in which characters occasionally say things -- grim things, mostly -- in between puffs on cigarettes.

The Mayo Clinic is in what I think of as Middle America, though the term has to be used with care. It's easiest to visualize: Get yourself to Minneapolis and then head south for 90 miles, whereafter ... Rochester. There are 100,000 people there; a third of them work for IBM and a third for Mayo. Most people have a story about that remarkable place, myself included. Mine I got from the late David Niven. He was suffering from an odd affliction that seized his voice from time to time. Living in France and Switzerland, he had consulted with a broad band of specialists, but none had come up with a diagnosis. My wife said to him, Why don't you go to Mayo's? He did, and in two days they told him he was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, popularly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. That's what it was, and he died of it 18 months later.

According to the World Health Organization, tobacco is the second major cause of preventable death in the world. Nearly five million lives per year are claimed by the tobacco industry, whose products results in premature death for half the people who use them. Among tobacco companies, Philip Morris is notorious. Now called Altria, it is the world's largest and most profitable cigarette corporation and maker of Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Parliament, Basic and many other brands of cigarettes. Philip Morris is also a leader in pushing smoking with young people around the world.

Philip Morris has consistently misled consumers about the dangers of its products. Documents uncovered in a lawsuit filed against the tobacco industry by the state of Minnesota showed that Philip Morris and other leading tobacco corporations knew very well of the dangers of tobacco products and the addictiveness of nicotine, yet they continued to deny these realities in public until the internal company documents were brought to light. To this day, Philip Morris deceives consumers about the harm of its products by offering light, mild and low-tar cigarettes that give consumers the illusion that these brands are "healthier" than traditional cigarettes.

Philip Morris has actively targeted the world's youth by researching smoking patterns and attitudes and targeting youth as potential customers. Marlboro cigarettes are the top brand for youth in the United States. Although the company says it doesn't want kids to smoke, it spends millions of dollars every day marketing and promoting cigarettes to youth. Overseas, it has even hired underage Marlboro girls to distribute free cigarettes to other children and sponsored concerts where cigarettes were handed out to minors.

As anti-tobacco campaigns and government regulations are slowing tobacco use in Western countries, Philip Morris has aggressively moved into developing country markets, where smoking and smoking-related deaths are on the rise. According to a study by the Harvard School of Public Health, tobacco's killing fields are shifting to the developing world and Eastern Europe, where most of the world's smokers now live. Preliminary numbers released by the World Health Organization predict global deaths due to smoking-related illnesses will nearly double by 2020, with more than three-quarters of those deaths in the developing world.

Meanwhile, Philip Morris' profits continue to grow. In the third quarter of 2005 alone, Altria's net revenue was $25 billion, up from 2004 in large part due to the high performance of Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International.

Full story from Global Exchange site: "Most Wanted" Corporate Human Rights Violators of 2005

Not too long ago, when municipalities across Alberta were adopting no-smoking bylaws, there was an organization called the Canadian Property Rights Association that predictably turned up at council meetings across Alberta to lobby against such bylaws.

The Canadian Property Rights Association has, thankfully, disappeared from the face of the earth, and I wouldn't be surprised if I heard that the demise had something to do with a connection that was revealed between this organization and former Canadian Alliance leader (and possible Minister of Foreign Affairs) Stockwell Day.

A storm came up during the Leaders' Debate when Prime Minister Paul Martin said that he wanted to amend the Canadian constitution to remove the "notwithstanding clause". During the press scrum after the debate, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper let a cat of equal size out of the bag. He said that he would like to amend the constitution to protect "property rights".

Malaysia Kini, Nov. 14, 2005: "Grim Reaper" appears at Tobacco Expo

Malaysia Kini, Nov. 15, 2005: "Mr. Death" clouds KL tobacco convention

Malay Mail, Nov. 16, 2005: Tobacco fair in KL under fire

The News, Nov. 17, 2005: A grim message

There will be another one of these trade shows in Sao Paulo, Brazil, November 14-16, 2008.

A BAT spokeswoman insisted that the taste of their products would not change. It's safe to assume that the toxicity won't change, either.

Story from the Globe and Mail: Imperial Tobacco plants to shut down (sorry, fee required). No mention of BAT's until-recently-secret manufacturing facility in North Korea.

Rothmans and JTI-Macdonald still manufacture cigarettes in Canada.

Response from Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada: Imperial Tobacco's closure of tobacco plants is an opportunity to say "good buy".

The columnist most up front in this was Michael Campbell, who has a column in the business section of the Fraser Institute mouthpiece Vancouver Sun, and a program on CKNW called "Money Talks".

In Campbell's case, money doesn't just talk, it libels. Campbell invented a fantasy about an "anti-smoking Gestapo", and the Sun printed it.

Here's a response to Campbell's name-calling: Michael Campbell, Tobacco Industry Sycophant.

A few days prior to the 25^th Anniversary Terry Fox Run (TFR), held September 18, 2005, Airspace Action on Smoking & Health learned that, among the celebrities scheduled to attend and/or participate in this year's Terry Fox Hometown (Port Coquitlam) Run were Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell.

It just so happens that Airspace President Errol E. Povah is a huge fan of Terry Fox, and has run in more than 20 previous TFRs... and has volunteered (picked up Canadian Springs Water, returned the empty jugs afterward, etc.) at a couple others. He proudly wears his rather vast collection of TFR t-shirts throughout the year.

And so it was that, with some trepidation, even after a great deal of soul-searching and wondering (right up to the last minute) if we were doing the right thing, etc., we decided to "move forward" (one of Gordo's favorite expressions... even when he is, in fact, going backwards) with our plan to conduct an Awareness and Educational display at the 2005 Hometown Run.

We are a small group of very sensitive and caring volunteers who have dedicated a huge chunk of our lives to the extremely worthwhile and rewarding anti-tobacco movement (we are NOT anti-smokers!). While we recognized that some people might be offended by our presence at the TFR - and some were - of those who expressed an opinion, the vast majority gave us huge thumbs up! To those who were offended, we suggested they vent their anger toward both Paul Martin and Gordon Campbell... and toward those (albeit few) individuals -- presumably spectators, as opposed to run participants -- who were smoking at the site! I don't care whether they're outside or not, nor how addicted they might be: Anyone who smokes anywhere near a TFR site, on run day, is disrespectful!

You see, Terry died trying to find a cure for cancer.

The specific type of bone cancer Terry had is called osteogenic sarcoma. All bone cancers, combined, currently kill about 150 Canadians each year.

Just for a moment, try to imagine that there was one single product out there - available virtually 24/7, from your local grocery store, 7-11, pharmacy, gas station, corner store, etc. - that caused 85% (or 128) of all bone cancer deaths. How long do you think that product would be allowed to retain its legal status, and remain on the open market?

In terms of the number of deaths caused by a specific form of cancer, lung cancer tops the list. Just a few years ago, it surpassed breast cancer as the leading form of cancer death in women; and for every man who dies of prostate cancer, five die of lung cancer. Lung cancer currently kills about 20,000 Canadians each year.

Now, just for a moment, try to imagine that there was one single product out there - available virtually 24/7, from your local grocery store, 7-11, pharmacy, gas station, corner store, etc. - that caused 85% of all lung cancer deaths - that's right, about 17,000 prematurely dead Canadians, each and every year!

Okay, now stop imagining... because such a product really does exist. It's called tobacco... and the deadly combination of the most addictive drug known (nicotine) and a toxic soup of more than 4,000 chemicals (40 of which are known human carcinogens) is conveniently delivered -- via cigarettes, cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco, etc. - 24/7 from virtually any store near you.

And, as if that isn't bad enough, the "Lung cancer is the biggest killer of smokers" myth still persists: Smoking-induced heart disease kills more smokers than lung cancer... currently, at the rate of about 21,000 Canadians per year!

As stated earlier, Terry died trying to find a cure for cancer... his cancer, any cancer, ALL cancer!

Paul Martin and Gordon Campbell are not only doing little or nothing to make Terry's dream come true, other than throwing a few million taxpayer dollars at the problem (I don't know about Gordo but, according to the Vancouver Sun, Martin couldn't even be bothered to walk more than about two blocks of the PoCo event, after which he chatted with the media, then left) but, in terms of tobacco, they are, quite literally, promoting cancer!

Big business rules, in both Ottawa and Victoria, and few businesses are bigger than Big Tobacco! Martin and Campbell are nothing more than puppets of the nicotine cartel... and as such, it is their job to very aggressively promote cancer!

We have dealt with Paul Martin's very direct links to the cartel on many previous occasions, most notably in the Summer, 04 issue of our newsletter, the Breathers' Digest (available online: Unrepentant Tobacco Executive Elected Prime Minister).

Gordo's connections aren't quite so blatant: Unlike Martin, Campbell was never a tobacco executive, but you wouldn't know it by his actions/inaction. One of the first major acts of the Campbell government was to, within a couple of months of first being elected in May 2001, gut the WCB No Smoking Regulation. It was not part of their pre-election platform, nor did they have any mandate whatsoever to do it but, in a precedent-setting move, then-Labour Minister Graham Bruce - for the first time in the 87-year history of the WCB - interfered with and over-ruled the WCB by gutting the No Smoking regulation... most notably, by allowing servers to spend up to 20% of their shift in a Designated Smoking Room (DSR). That decision was based on no medical or scientific evidence whatsoever: There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand smoke, period! But whatever figure they chose, it really didn't matter, just so long as it ultimately achieved the government's desired objective: Render the regulation useless and, at the same time, turn back the clock on tobacco control by 15 to 20 years.

Again, whether by action or inaction, the tobacco connections in the Campbell government were - and still are - very deep. In addition to Graham Bruce, here are just a few examples:

• Minister of State for Mental Health and Addiction Services (emphasis ours) Brenda Locke, who previously served as a long-term Executive Director of at least one bar/pub association, was one of the most vocal opponents of any/all smoking restrictions;
• One of Lorne Mayencourt's more high-profile campaign workers was Barwatch and Granville Entertainment Group (a couple of tobacco industry front groups) big-shot Vance Campbell, who predicted vast "the sky will fall" doom and gloom if smoking was banned in bars and pubs. Despite a few childish resistance games in the early stages, Campbell's smoke-free pubs are now doing a booming business;
• Val Roddick, chair of the Select Standing Committee on Health, dedicated 3 full pages - of a 64-page report - to tobacco. At first glance, that sounds pretty impressive but, given the fact that tobacco is, by far, the leading cause of preventable disease, disability and premature death in this province, it really wasn't much. To add insult to injury, within those 3 pages, there was not one single word about anything that the Campbell government had done, in terms of tobacco control. There was lots of history (regarding how the percentage of smokers has declined over the years, etc.), lots of stories about what's happening in tobacco control in other jurisdictions around the world (most of whom are now light years ahead of us) etc. but again, nothing about what the Campbell Liberals have done... or intend to do, in terms of tobacco control; and
• Then-Health Minister Colin Hansen stood by and said/did absolutely nothing as Bruce, with Gordo's blessing, gutted the WCB No Smoking regulation. And he did nothing else, positive, in terms of tobacco control either. Shame on him!

Think all of this is just Airspace propaganda? Not! The Canadian Cancer Society recently conducted a study, clearly showing that, over the past 4 ½ short years (among all Canadian provinces and territories), B.C. has fallen from first to ninth in tobacco control. And Canada, under Paul Martin, fell from top spot long ago.

Airspace will continue to do anything and everything it can to bring public attention to these extremely disturbing high-level political connections to the Merchants of Death at the Nicotine Cartel... and if that means the Grim Reaper has to attend Terry Fox Runs carrying his 5-foot "SICKARET" and a placard that says, "TERRY FOX DIED TRYING TO FIND A CURE FOR CANCER" on one side and, "MY OL' PAL FORMER(?) TOBACCO EXECUTIVE PAUL MARTIN CONTINUES TO PROMOTE CANCER" on the other, then so be it.

Shame on Campbell and Martin!

Another account from former Airspace President Robert Broughton: The Grim Reaper attends the Terry Fox Run