Sean Coates enjoys a cigarette at Kits Beach in Vancouver as he takes a break from work.Jeff Vinnick
With Vancouver launching its smoking ban in all city parks on Wednesday, Kathryn Tatchell, a lung-cancer patient, and her two daughters should have been able to enjoy untainted air at Kitsilano Beach.
Instead, the familiar smell of cigarette smoke wafted in their direction as two young women lit up just 15 metres away in defiance of the bylaw.
"That does bother me," said Ms. Tatchell, who is visiting Vancouver from Victoria and is not a smoker. "Just a few days ago at the beach someone started smoking, so I had to move."
Her daughter, Georgia Graham, who lives in Vancouver, supports the smoking ban.
"Second-hand smoke is an invasion of your own health," she said. "If people were respectful, then that law wouldn't have to exist."
While Ms. Tatchell's family got a whiff of tobacco on Wednesday, smokers were the exception in the city's parks the first day of the ban.
The new bylaw prohibits smoking in 244 parks, including seawalls, beaches, park buildings, concessions, public transit, bus shelters and taxis. Smokers, whether they are lighting up a cigarette, cigar, pipe, hookah or anything else that burns tobacco or weed have to take it elsewhere - or face a $250 fine.
The Vancouver Park Board passed the ban unanimously in April.
"We are there to make sure that all Vancouverites, and even visitors, are able to come down and have a reasonable expectation that they can enjoy the parks, beaches, playgrounds and not have their health put in harm's way," said park board commissioner Aaron Jasper.
The message that came out of consultation with doctors was there is no such thing as safe exposure to second-hand smoke, Mr. Jasper said.
He also acknowledged the new rules may be challenging for smokers, but they are not meant to punish them.
"This is about public health, and your right to smoke should not have an impact, or should not prevent other people from coming down and using that same space," he said. "It's about helping smokers realize that their habit and their activity is putting their neighbours, their friends, their families in harm's way."
The park board plans to enforce the ban through verbal warnings, posted notices and $250 fines.
The bylaw is the latest in a string of existing laws aimed at snuffing out tobacco in Vancouver. Smoking is already banned on patios, bus stops, and near entranceways and air intakes.
Similar bans on outdoor smoking in parks, beaches and playgrounds are in effect in West Vancouver, White Rock and Richmond.
Sean Coates, who was smoking in a Vancouver park on Wednesday, said the bans are getting ridiculous and the city should trust smokers to be courteous.
"If I am smoking in a public place, I try to smoke away from people," he said. "I know people don't want to breathe in that crap."
Rachel Halpern, on the other hand, supported the ban. Ms. Halpern, who smokes occasionally, wasn't smoking in the park on Wednesday.
"Smoking is a gross habit. It shouldn't be allowed in public," she said. "I always feel guilty when I am walking down the street smoking and I see a baby stroller go by."