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www.insideHALTON.comt0",7*--&#&"7&3 Wednesday, July 4, 2012 t OPINION & LETTERS 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5566 Classified Advertising: 632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 --Open 9-5 weekdays, 5-7 for calls only Wed. to Friday, Closed weekends Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. The Oakville Beaver THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: Canadian Circulation Audit Board Member THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: Recognized for Excellence by Ontario Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America Canadian Community Newspapers Association ATHENA Award NEIL OLIVER Vice ­ President and Group Publisher of Metroland West The Oakville Beaver is a division of DAVID HARVEY Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director ANGELA BLACKBURN Managing Editor RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution KIM MOSSMAN Circ. Manager Think of the children Should smoking be banned in Oakville's public parks? Simply put, yes. It's about time our town joined the more than 50 Ontario municipalities looking to push the 2006 SmokeFree Ontario law meant for indoors, outside. According to a recent Toronto Star article, in April, Ottawa banned smoking at all of its outdoor restaurant and bar patios, city-owned parks, playgrounds, beaches, sports fields, and fruit and vegetable markets -- Hamilton followed suit in May with a smoking ban on all city-owned property used for recreational purposes. The City of Toronto has banned smoking in its more than 800 public park playgrounds, wading pools, splash pads and zoos within a nine-metre (29.5-foot) radius of the areas, including the surrounding edge of any playground surface and equipment, wading pool basins, and safety surfaces of splash pads. It's clear these municipalities have already recognized second-hand smoke is extremely harmful to a child's growing body and it's something that Oakville needs to, as well. Nearly 200 of our oakvillebeaver.com readers took part in an online poll asking if they would support a town-wide ban on smoking in parks, open spaces and lands that have community centres, fire stations, libraries and other Town facilities -- and Oakvillians seem split, with slightly more than half of online readers (54 per cent) supporting an outdoor ban on smoking, while just under half (44 per cent) were against -- less than one per cent were undecided. The same question was recently tackled by Town council, with councillors contemplating a complete ban, a ban on smoking within 10 metres of facilities within public parks where children typically play, or a third option that would refer the matter to Halton Region -- a report will be presented to Town council next Monday (July 9). There are those that may say a ban on smoking in public parks and wide-open areas is an infringement on their freedom to choose -- we see it as an acceptable restriction. Smoke moves through air and doesn't stayed confined, hovering around the smoker and his or her cigarette -- arguably, second-hand smoke infringes on people's (especially a child's) right to breathe clean air, keep a healthy set of lungs and limit exposure to a known cancer-causing substance. There are a slew of legitimate reasons for implementing a public ban, in addition to the one we mentioned above: seeing a caregiver or loved one smoking can increase the chance their children will try smoking; young children could eat toxic cigarette butts or choke on them while playing; and cigarette butts release harmful toxins into the ground, taking a long time to decompose or biodegrade. Let's just think of the children. The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Letter to the editor All society should be smoke-free Re: Blowin' smoke, Oakville Beaver editorial, Friday, June 22, 2012 Kudos to The Oakville Beaver's editorial (June 22), and Ward 2 Town Councillor Pam Damoff, (David Lea's article, Should parks be made smokefree?, June 21) for both highlighting and encouraging an outdoor, smokefree Oakville. Here's my experience: I live in a corporate-owned enclave of townhouses, which is a smoker's paradise. My dream would be the federal government posting its graphic images of blotched tongues on neighbourhood signage just close enough for these folks to notice, because packagelabelling has not been effective around here. To my frustration, cigarette butts are littered everywhere. Unsightly. Environmentally hostile. I've even taken it upon myself to place large juice cans filled with stones and sand as ashtrays in convenient locations -- management removed them. Furthermore, outdoor cigarette smoke floats across these small yards; so my patio is hijacked. Neither I, nor my grandchildren, enjoy sitting out and breathing in the second-hand smoke. And, for the record, I'm not just some cranky neighbour. I used to smoke, myself, in the middle ages. Consequently, I've experienced first-hand the cancerous effects of smoking. And, as a society, should we not be evolving to protect the health of our youth, even if we don't care about our own demise? Any ideas out there, for dealing with this privately-owned area, which can't be legislated? Sylvia Valevicius, Oakville Letters to the editor The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. Searching for owner of lost bird On a walk Wednesday (June 20) evening, I saw a budgie on the road on Front Street near George Street, across from the address 212 Front St. It was very tame and allowed me to come very close, but did fly away when I tried to catch it. I knocked on numerous doors on that street and around the block, but no one owned a pet bird and none knew of any neighbour who did. This occurred around 5:45 p.m. It may have flown there from quite a distance away of course, but seemed so unperturbed, I thought it might be recently escaped as it hadn't yet developed a fear of predators/ sense of danger. Anita Cwynar, Oakville Golf tourney raises more than 18K for MS On behalf of the Halton Chapter of the MS Society and our golf committee, a big thank you to all our sponsors, prize donors, golfers, Crosswinds Golf and Country Club, and of course, our invaluable volunteers. Thank you doesn't seem quite enough for everyone involved who generously gave their time and those who obtained sponsors for the tournament and those who donated prizes to ensure that every golfer walked away with a gift. There are so many worthwhile events going on in Halton that we are truly grateful to everyone who supported us. Because of the contributions of so many wonderful people, we are thrilled to say that we have raised $18,200 for the Halton MS Chapter. As we do not receive any government funding or United Way assistance, our fundraising efforts are instrumental in being able to provide the supports and services to our many members and their families with or affected by Multiple Sclerosis across Halton. A heartfelt thank you to the Golf Committee members who volunteer their time, work tirelessly and will be back at it in August, planning for 2013. Heather Mattocks, Golf committee co-chair, Halton MS Society