Smoking in Kelowna City Parks is Unlawful
City councillors in Kelowna, B.C., could vote to ban Virginia and other cigarettes smoking in all city parks, beaches, trails and sidewalk patios on Monday, but the idea is not sitting well with smokers. The vote comes after the Vancouver Park Board made all 200 of the city’s parks and 18 kilometres of beaches smoke-free earlier this month
Kelowna Park Services manager Ian Wilson says support has since grown for a similar ban in the Okanagan city.
“We’ve had a petition recently, people saying that they would like to enjoy sitting in stadiums and those types of areas or on beaches without having to worry about second-hand smoke,” he said.
But lifelong smoker James Turncliff said that soon there will be nowhere left for people like him to light up.
“We’re paying for the right to kill ourselves, slowly. And we can’t smoke in public places? I don’t smoke near people, I don’t smoke near kids as well — common courtesy. I find that really unfair — talk about discrimination,” he said.
Other Okanagan cities have dismissed the idea of smoking bans. Penticton Mayor Dan Ashton said his city put up signs asking people not to smoke, but enforcing a ban would be too difficult.
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