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Ready, Fire!, Aim. How Bill C-32 is a Perfect Example of Government Mismanagement 

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq's May 26th announcement that the Conservative Government would make good on an electoral promise to ban flavours in tobacco products, has proven to be the perfect example of the current government's gross mismanagement of a very important public health file.

As the government journeys dangerously closer towards formalizing Bill C-32 (An Act to Amend the Tobacco Act) into law, Casa Cubana is once again calling on all Parliamentarians and the media to consider the very serious implications of legislating any issue on a premise of fear, not fact - hate, not health. The current market environments in our country are such that Bill C-32 will only come to destroy thousands of legitimate Canadian businesses and jobs, while further fueling the criminal networks involved in tobacco, drugs and weapons trafficking. There is only a "perceived" health benefit to banning flavoured tobacco products in Canada, says Luc Martial (in charge of government affairs with Casa Cubana and formerly with the Non-Smokers' Rights Association, the Canadian Council on Smoking and Health, the National Clearinghouse on Tobacco and Health, and the Tobacco Control Programme at Health Canada). Bill C-32 is perilously leveraged on this misguided perception and our country will in the end only come to be hurt by the government's gross negligence on this file, says Mr. Martial.

Casa Cubana testified before the Standing Committee on Health last Thursday and brought these issues (e.g. lack of research and consultation) to the forefront. We were quite surprised by the lack of interest among Committee Members,

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