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ORHMA
Terry Mundell, President & CEO
Terry Mundell was also past President & CEO of the Ontario
Restaurant Association (ORA). The ORA combined with the Ontario
Hotel and Motel Association in 1999 to create the Ontario
Restaurant, Hotel and Motel Association (ORHMA).
Mundell has worked with Canadian tobacco companies, as well
as industry consultants John Luik and Roger Jenkins. During
the City of Toronto's smoke-free bylaw campaign in 1999, Luik
spoke at a press conference criticizing a report written by
Toronto's Medical Officer of Health on second-hand smoke and
lung cancer. Jenkins was asked by the ORA to conduct a study
on second-hand smoke exposure levels at the Black Dog Pub.
To read more about these two consultants, please go to the
section on Consultants.
A particularly revealing memo is a July
15, 1998 Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Council Memorandum
in which Mundell requested assistance from the CTMC for ventilation
strategies to prevent the passage of Toronto's smoke-free
bylaw. Below is the excerpt:
[ORA
President] Terry Mundell has quietly indicated the Ontario
Restaurant Association's (ORA) plan to consult a polling
firm with respect to the planned "consultation"
polling by the Toronto Board of Health. At the very least,
the ORA intends to get an opinion on the board of health's
questions and to call into question their methodology publicly.
They are also considering the suggestion to undertake their
own poll to counter that of the board of health. A request
of funding by the HAC [Hotel Association of Canada] will
probably be considered.
Terry
asked for assistance in proving that a carbon dioxide detector
could be a proper measure for ETS as an "anchor"
for the ORA position on ventilation. Mundell wants to ensure
that the "technical aspects are right." Regrettably,
our research on this subject has indicated that no such
proof exists as CO2 is an indicator of overall air quality
and not specifically ETS.
In addition to the ventilation request made by Mundell, the
excerpt shows that the ORA planned to call Toronto Board of
Health polling methodology into question before having actually
assessed it. The excerpt is also highly suggestive that the
Hotel Association of Canada (HAC) has funded other anti-smoke-free
bylaw projects. This is significant because CTMC Vice President
David Laundy confirmed in a June
2000 CBC interview that the HAC had been receiving $800,000/year
for several years to fund the tobacco industry-sponsored Courtesy
of Choice ventilation promotion program.
To read more about the ORHMA, please click
here.
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PUBCO
Barry McKay, General Manager
Jill Scott, President
Dan Taite, Fundraising and Membership Coordinator
Barry McKay is the most outspoken member of PUBCO.
He frequently speaks at public consultation meetings in municipalities
considering implementing smoke-free public place and/or workplace
bylaws. Like the tobacco industry, he denies the health effects
of second-hand smoke and calls the medical evidence of second-hand
smoke a "scare tactic [that] is based on myth, a myth
that was dreamt up by Anti strategists in the World Health
Organization (WHO)…." (May 2003 PUBCO newsletter).
McKay is on the public record in support of unenclosed ventilation
as well as separately-enclosed, separately-ventilated designated
smoking rooms. This is just one of many contradictions regularly
put forward by PUBCO's most visible representative. This has
not stopped McKay from listing "Ventilation Facts"
in a May 2003 newsletter. The "facts" listed are
predictable tobacco industry messages that praise ventilation
technology as a viable alternative to smoking bans, regardless
of the fact that the American Society for Heating, Refrigeration
and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has refused to set
ventilation standards for air containing second-hand smoke
because there is no known safe level of exposure. To learn
more, please refer to Industry
Attack on ASHRAE.
Under these "facts", the Black Dog Pub ventilation
pilot project is listed as an example of ventilation technology
that works. As discussed in the "Ventilation
Solution" in Ontario, the Black Dog Pub study was
likely funded by the tobacco industry and conducted by a well-known
tobacco industry consultant, Roger
Jenkins. It was peer reviewed by credible engineering
companies and world-renowned expert on ventilation, James
Repace, who all came to the conclusion that the study was
methodologically unsound and that the evidence did not support
the authors' conclusions.
Although there is no hard evidence that PUBCO is funded by
the tobacco industry, McKay has publicly stated that PUBCO
would jump at the chance to take money from the industry to
help fund their ventilation lobbying efforts (PUBCO release,
January 29, 2002). McKay also identifies tobacco industry
representatives that appeared at a December 2002 public health
conference in Ottawa as "PUBCO supporters" (PUBCO,
Bulletin 12).
Dan Taite also appears at public consultation meetings
in municipalities considering implementing smoke-free public
place and workplace bylaws.
At a public consultation meeting in the Municipality of Callander,
in the District of Parry Sound, Taite told Council he knew
Heather Crowe, and that she had stated that if ventilation
had been in place then she wouldn't be in the position she
is in today.
Heather Crowe is a former Ottawa waitress diagnosed with
inoperable lung cancer due to second-hand smoke exposure in
the workplace. After winning her claim at the Workplace Safety
& Insurance Board (please see Tribunals
under Legal Issues),
Heather volunteers as a pro-smoking ban advocate with Physicians
for a Smoke-free Canada.
Ms. Crowe subsequently sent a letter to Callander Council
stating that she does not know Taite, nor had she ever made
the alleged comments regarding ventilation. To view the letter,
please click here.
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CRFA
Douglas Needham, President
Luc Erjavec, Vice President, Atlantic Canada
Michael Farabee, Executive Vice President, Government Relations
Courtney Donovan, Policy Advocate
Douglas Needham and the CRFA emerged fairly
recently on the pro-ventilation lobbying scene. The organization
seems to have a louder voice on the east coast of Canada,
particularly in Nova Scotia (click
here to view a July 15, 1998 CTMC memo which describes
the CRFA and Courtesy of Choice program working towards a
"ventilation solution" in Nova Scotia).
Douglas Needham appeared with ORHMA President & CEO Terry
Mundell before a committee of York Regional Council in May
2002 to make a request for a ventilation pilot project to
be set up in York Region using similar ventilation technology
that was used in the Black Dog Pub study during Toronto's
smoking bylaw campaign. Council turned down the request. Please
go to the "Ventilation
Solution" in Ontario to read more about the joint
request.
Luc Erjavec is the CRFA representative for
Atlantic Canada. He authored an April 2, 2003 press release
published in rebuttal to the release of the February 2003
GPI Atlantic Study which found no evidence of an overall,
negative economic impact on the hospitality industry due to
smoking ban legislation. In the release, Erjavec made the
following claims without citing any sources to back up his
statements:
- 920 employees were laid off and 14 businesses closed in
the 80 days of a failed smoking ban in B.C.
- 40 small businesses closed in the first 18 months of a
smoking ban in Ottawa bars and restaurants
- Sales are down 10 - 30% in bars and restaurants in Brandon,
Manitoba since a smoking ban took effect in September, 2002.
In response, OCAT sent Erjavec an email requesting that he
reveal the statistical evidence for his claims. As is discussed
in the section on Economic
Impact, information from financial statements and sales
tax receipts are the only objective means to access economic
impact. Erjavec has still not responded.
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GTHA
Rod Seiling, President
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