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• B.C. man takes smoking wife to court 

A divorced father in Victoria is going to court to stop his ex-wife from taking their son to Arizona – because he's afraid she'll smoke in the car.

Jason Arsenault doesn't want to let Elizabeth Howse take their seven-year-old boy on the car trip, because she hasn't agreed to stop smoking in the car.

Howse has sole custody but Arsenault, as a guardian, must give permission for her to take the boy across the border.

When Howse refused to agree to not smoke in the car, Arsenault refused to sign a document that would allow the seven-year-old to go on the trip.

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• Father asks court to protect child from mother's smoke 

Jason Arsenault, 28, has refused to give Elizabeth Howse, 27, permission to take their son, Dustin, on a trip to Arizona on Dec. 15 because Ms. Howse will not agree to refrain from smoking in the car. Her boyfriend, who is going on the trip as well, also smokes.

Although the case will be watched closely by anti-smoking groups, Mr. Arsenault, a former smoker, said he did not want it to become a test case for non-smokers' rights. . .

Shelley Arsenault said Dustin told them his mother and her boyfriend smoked in the car and the house and that he didn't like it. She said the boy was to ask them not to smoke in front of him and that when he did, he was told it was their car and their rules applied.

Eike Kluge, a philosophy professor at the University of Victoria specializing in medical ethics, said the issues raised by the court action have generated considerable interest.

"What it goes to is the very heart of the issue of what the obligations of parents are to their children in terms of doing the best for the children, and whether parental habits or addiction may put a child at risk."

"The very same logic would then entail that an alcoholic parent should, in fact, have the children removed even though they may have control of their alcoholism."

The outcome of the case could be far-reaching if such wide issues are pressed, he said.

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