Re: CRD smoking bylaw
Every day, except for some Fridays when dock workers are given the day off, a steady stream of cars, trucks and motorcycles pass by my house at rush hour. There are usually 100 or more vehicles, at least 99 per cent of which are occupied by one person.
The World Health Organization announced recently that the air we breathe is as bad, and in some cases worse, than second-hand cigarette smoke.
Our bus system is one of the best in Canada. Why are more single-occupant vehicle drivers not riding the bus? Or why does the City of Victoria not provide shuttle buses from pick-up and drop-off points, so vehicles are not clogging our streets and spewing cancer-causing particulates into the air we breathe? The people who are doing this are probably the same people who would vote for this new bylaw, if they could.
I am not convinced that if I smoke a cigarette in Centennial Square I am hurting anyone, except maybe myself. Smoking is not illegal. But, if this new bylaw is passed, we could be subjected to the same treatment as a junkie or other petty criminals – given a citation and thrown in jail if we don’t pay. How ridiculous is that?
Until something is done about the behaviour of drivers and others harming our environment, lay off cigarette smokers who are contributing far less to the ruining of our air and environment than these people who are spewing out poison every single day.
Meta Peet
Esquimalt