On the surface, a flavour ban on vaping products seems simple and easy. It's the low-hanging fruit in this never-ending battle over tobacco and nicotine. Ban flavours? Who cares about people who smoke(ed)? They should just quit. But a flavour ban in Canada is not as simple as it seems. A flavour ban in this country will have immense consequences and no one is talking about it. How did we get here? In 2021, over 20,000 Canadians participated in a public consultation on a proposed national flavour ban. The public response was overwhelming in support of flavours continuing to be legally available, to facilitate Canadians who smoke in switching away from 'lethal' cigarettes. The Canadian vaping community was encouraged that the regulations did not move forward. It seemed that Health Canada understood the risks of banning flavours and the benefits of vaping as a tobacco harm-reduction tool. In February of this year however, Health Minister Mark Holland unexpectedly revived the debate. .We were shocked. We were once again fighting for our right to smoke a safer product — fighting for our lives, in the view of some — while the minister who should be the one helping us, is instead protecting the health of the cigarette industry.In a hastily called virtual meeting, Health Canada asked us what has changed in the three years since the initial regulations were published.Let me begin by stating what has not changed. Vaping continues to save lives and flavours help adult smokers move towards vaping. Vaping is at least 95 per cent less harmful than smoking.Now, here's what has changed. We have a case study in Quebec of what happens when flavoured vapour products are banned. With this prohibition, the Government of Quebec has protected cigarette sales from legitimate competition and handed the vapour industry to the black market.For, flavours are still available in the province.Mark Holland has a strong background in abstinence-only, anti-tobacco work, having worked for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. His rhetoric mirrors the arguments of old-school anti-tobacco groups with a strong emphasis on ensuring that Canadians who smoke either quit their way or die.After years of more open views of vaping from previous ministers on this file, we have fallen backwards.In a March 20 press conference, Minister Holland claimed that vapour products have “had very injurious outcomes for our health system” and “that we saw happening in vaping, all the illness, the death, the sickness.”Both statements are categorically false. The Minister of Health of all Canadians should know better. Misleading Canadians by exaggerating the risks of alternatives to cigarettes is no less reprehensible than misleading them, as cigarette companies did for decades, by downplaying the risks of smoking.The Minister of Mental Health and Addiction, Ya’ara Saks, who should be stickhandling this issue seems to have been sidelined. It seems that whatever chance Minister Holland gets, he will talk about saving the children from the big bad tobacco companies. He has even said that they will not be able to hide from him, he will go to the dark corners and find them.I wonder if he will act with such chivalry when the black market criminals take over. Will he be as bold with these illegal entities as he is with one of the most heavily regulated industries, tobacco?If the flavour ban goes through, we can guarantee that:Flavours will continue to be available in Canada. But, they won’t be regulated, safe or taxed.Many of those who vape will find a way, as the alternative is likely the resumption of inhaling toxic cigarette smoke.The criminals operating the vaping black market will prosper.People who smoke but could have found vaping a viable alternative will continue smoking and dying.Public health ethics and Charter rights will be ignored. Those attacking the legitimacy of liberal democracy will be empowered.If the flavour ban from 2021 is adopted as written, nearly all existing flavour profiles in the legitimate vaping products market will be removed within 180 days of the publication of the proposed order and regulation.Which mean there is nothing left to tax. And Deputy Prime Minister Freeland did promise to use the vaping tax and the tobacco tax to help fund the national drug program.Our elected representatives must show they respect rights, and honour democratic principles.They must move beyond simply seeking to use the power of the state to impose their moral views on the behaviour of others. To show they can regulate on the basis of science, reason and humanism.Canada needs and deserves better.Maria Papaioannoy switched from smoking to vaping in 2010. She lives in Cobourg, Ontario and is the spokesperson for Rights4Vapers.
