From: bill@smokescreen.org
Date: Wed, 09/17/03
Following is an urgent request from international public health
advocates and a news article explaining how Canada and other nations are
being blackmailed into promoting smoking via Formula One car races.
Please take several minutes to sign the petitions.
- - -
Dear tobacco control colleagues:
Tobacco control advocates around the world need to stand up to global
blackmail from Formula One and the tobacco industry! Please sign FOUR
Globalink petitions, one to Canada, congratulating the Prime Minister
for putting an end to tobacco advertising in Formula One racing, even
at the cost of losing Canada's Formula One race, and three more to
each of China, Bahrain and Turkey urging them to maintain their
existing bans on tobacco advertising and sponsorship and prevent
tobacco advertising from ever appearing on Formula One race cars
in their countries.
Will the simple act of adding your name and address to petitions
really get tobacco advertising out of Formula One all around the
world? Maybe not, but it will sure help a lot!
Please take two minutes to add your name to four Globalink petitions
(three if you have already signed the one to China) aimed at getting
tobacco out of Formula One around the world. You can do so by going
to the following four web addresses:
Canada: http://petition.globalink.org/view.php?code=canada
Bahrain http://petition.globalink.org/view.php?code=bahrain
Turkey http://petition.globalink.org/view.php?code=turkey
China: http://petition.globalink.org/view.php?code=shanghai
Over two hundred tobacco control advocates have already signed this
petition to the Chinese Health Minister, Madam Wu Yi. You need
only sign this one if you have not already done so. It will be
sent to Madam Wu Yi very soon.
Thank you for your help!
Neil Collishaw, Research Director
Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada
ncollishaw@smoke-free.ca
- - -
Grand Prix strategy sputters in Ottawa
By Drew Fagan
Globe and Mail (Toronto, CA)
September 16, 2003
Bernie Ecclestone may have overplayed his hand. The Liberal government's
backbone stiffened yesterday in the battle over its controversial
antitobacco legislation, which will ban sponsorships at high-profile
events such as Montreal's Canadian Grand Prix and is to go into effect
on Oct. 1.
Government sources suggested yesterday the federal government is now
leaning toward allowing the legislation to go into effect unchanged, even
if this guarantees that the Formula One auto-racing circuit bypasses Montreal
in 2004 and thereafter. The reason: Many cabinet ministers believe that Mr.
Ecclestone, who runs the F1 operation almost as a private fiefdom, isn't
interested in any kind of compromise.
Indeed, some government officials wonder whether Mr. Ecclestone's real
concern is the tobacco legislation at all. Perhaps he just doesn't want to
stop in Montreal any more, they suggest, and is more interested in seeking
out new venues in Europe and Asia. If that's the case, what's the point of
even considering a compromise, such as a further delay of legislation that
already included a multiyear phase-in period when passed in 1998?
Mr. Ecclestone has fuelled his hard-line reputation with suggestions
that a delay until 2005 of Canada's new law (coinciding with implementation
of a similar ban by the European Union) wouldn't be sufficient. He wants
a permanent exemption from Canada's legislation for his auto race. "That's
simply not possible," Health Minister Anne McLellan responded yesterday,
after she hailed the new law as an example of Canadian leadership in the
fight against smoking. "We've been through this; we've made this clear."
As recently as last weekend, pressure on Ottawa was growing quickly
to find just about any way to keep the annual auto race. Proposed solutions
have included a delay of the law or massive federal support for the race
to compensate organizers for the loss of tobacco sponsorship. When antitobacco
activists realized yesterday that Ottawa was seriously reassessing the
situation,
they quickly rallied, calling cabinet members and the media.
Cynthia Callard, executive director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free
Canada, argues it would not be easy for Ottawa to delay the sponsorship law
again, since Canada signed an international convention this year that includes
a commitment not to permit the export of tobacco advertising. F1 races,
broadcast
worldwide, would appear to violate that. "At some point, when you are dealing
with a blackmailer, you have to say no," added Francis Thompson of the
Non-Smokers Rights Association.
Indeed, the word blackmail in relation to Mr. Ecclestone received wide
airing yesterday on Parliament Hill. Why, MPs wonder, has Mr. Ecclestone
been willing to compromise regarding antitobacco legislation in France and
England but not in Canada? He may miss Montreal more than he realizes, they
suggest, since the race has consistently been profitable there over its
25-year history, drawing hordes of fans from North America and Europe.
Federal officials emphasize that Ottawa is continuing to seek a compromise,
alongside members of the Liberal government in Quebec. A senior federal
minister
from Quebec was expected to provide an update at yesterday's cabinet meeting,
but did not due to scheduling reasons.
For the moment, attention is focused on an ad hoc task force comprising
federal, provincial and private sector representatives, which is continuing
to seek a compromise acceptable to all sides, including Mr. Ecclestone. One
strategy has been to appeal to the race-car owners themselves to try to find
non-tobacco sponsors for the Montreal race.
"There is a small door open," said an aide to Justice Minister Martin
Cauchon. But many wonder if it may be too little, too late, and that the
odds of the race being saved are growing longer. And they hope, perhaps beyond
hope, that Mr. Ecclestone may one day realize the error of his ways and seek
to return to Montreal.
http://www.globeandmail.com/[...]abin/BNStory/Sports/
<http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030916.wxucabin/BNStory/Sport
s/>
|
