Long overdue

As the Smoke-Free Ontario Act takes effect today, two thoughts come to mind: “Right on,” immediately followed by “What took so long?”
It’s certainly been a drawn out fight since Dr. Pete Sarsfield, medical officer of health for the Northwestern Health Unit, sought to impose his own version of a smoking ban in all enclosed public places in the Kenora and Rainy River districts back in 2002.
His efforts eventually failed when the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that Dr. Sarsfield had overstepped his bounds by trying to impose the ban. And Fort Frances town council at the time was too weak-kneed to pick up the torch, opting instead to wait for the provincial government to act.
Queen’s Park finally did—with Bill 164 now the law in the province.
Some bar and restaurant owners are crying foul, of course, worried that their businesses will suffer as a result of the smoking ban. Whether that happens remains to be seen, though, especially given the lack of mass closures when many Ontario municipalities, including Toronto and Ottawa, enacted their own smoke-free bylaws.
In fact, it’s just as likely bars and restaurants will see increased business from people who avoided them in the past due to their smoke-filled air.
Many local businesses already had seen the writing on the wall and went smoke-free, including Robin’s Donuts, La Place Rendez-Vous, Plaza Lanes, and the Fort Frances Curling Club, to name a few. Here at the Fort Frances Times, smoking hasn’t been allowed in the office for a good 15 years.
As well, many smokers already are in the habit of lighting up outdoors, whether at home, work, or out on the town for the evening.
Protecting workers and patrons from the health hazards of second-hand smoke is the right thing to do, and frankly should have been done long before Dr. Sarsfield was forced to take up his roundly-criticized, but very much valiant, crusade.