Here’s a good example of government authority drastically overstepping its boundaries.
What the article fails to mention is the fact that under existing Nova Scotia law, you have to be 19 years old to even enter the store in the first place. Do the people who think up crap like this not have anything better to do? How can I score a sweet gig where I can sit around all day dreaming up crazy ways to inflict my twisted, dictatorial agenda on everyone else?
The store is called Mader’s TOBACCO! Exactly who is being “protected” by forcing this private business owner, under threat of fines or jail time, to hide his perfectly legal product? Would someone going into this store not know beforehand that since it’s a tobacco store, they can expect to see tobacco products on display? Or are bullshit rules like this designed to “protect” the “human rights” of people who can’t, for one reason or another, read English and who might unwittingly stumble into his store, only to be horrified that there are tobacco products on display inside?
I think that’s probably part of it. I think another part of it is some peoples’ snotty and immature need to control every aspect of human behavior, especially the kinds they don’t agree with. I think that despite their best intentions, groups who seek to enact legislation like this are doing the most harm to our country. Because where does it stop, this need to legislate everything? Do we need to have video stores hiding movies that depict smoking from “the children?” Any movie that has a person smoking in it should be rated “R” or “NC-17?” What about a magazine that happens to have a picture of someone smoking in it? Should we start hiding the booze in bars and restaurants behind the counter, because a person whose religion doesn’t allow the consumption of alcohol could conceivably go into that restaurant and be offended at the display of alcohol? Do we need to start hiding fatty foods from everyone because some people are morbidly obese? Where does this insanity end? IT DOESN’T!! And believe me, food is next on the list. Municipalities across North America have already started banning trans fats.
It should have never been allowed to get this far, and we have noone to blame but ourselves and our fellow countrymen and women for allowing our governments and special interest groups to have these types of powers. Let’s look back at how we got to this point: first, the tobacco companies had to list the “toxic emissions” on the packs. Fine, fair enough. Then they had to put the big warnings right on the front of the pack in big, bold letters, in case you missed them on the side. Then came the big scary graphics of cancer-infested lungs and stroke-afflicted brains that took up 2/3 of the front of the pack. Then, at least in Calgary, city council banned smoking on all outdoor patios for an entire year before it was banned indoors, so that if you were having a beer on an OUTDOOR patio and you wanted a cigarette, you had to go back in the bar (I’m not making this up, I promise). Then tobacco companies weren’t allowed to describe cigarettes as being “light” or “mild” because us idiots would think smoking is healthy. Now you can’t display cigarettes because it makes “the children” want to start smoking. Even in a store that’s called “Mader’s Tobacco,” that people under 19 years of age can’t even legally enter. Grocery stores and other businesses that also have a pharmacy on site are now banned from selling tobacco products at all.
I wish Bob Gee all the luck in the world and I hope that this case makes it all the way to the Supreme Court and that the justices can see how laws like these are clear violations of the right to freedom of expression and the basic, fundamental right to just be left the hell alone.
