David Goerlitz, the former Winston Man, and producer Jean-Philippe Boutin partnered to make a short 15 minute documentary about Bill 44 and Bill S-5 in Quebec, Canada.
I don’t know how big of a role David Goerlitz played in advocating for vaping before he was featured in the popular documentary “A Billion Lives,” but since then, we’ve seen a lot of him. He’s been a really big advocate for promoting the benefits of vaping, which is great.
Goerlitz traveled to Quebec and talked with several vape shop owners.
Bill 44
In November 2015, the Quebec government classified vaping products as tobacco products with Bill 44. Since then, 40% of stores went out of business and all online stores were shut down.
Bill 44 made it so that:
- Shops can’t promote through social media, for example, they can’t have a Facebook group.
- Nobody is allowed to vape inside the stores.
- The inside of the store cannot be visible from outside. The windows have to be blocked off completely.
- You can’t bring children into the store, even if you have a two-year-old and you’re just trying to make a quick purchase. And this is even though you can’t vape inside the shop.
- Consumers can’t buy vape products online.
Bill S-5
Now Quebec vapers have to worry about Bill S-5, which is a federal level bill that regulates vaping under the Tobacco Act and puts Health Canada in charge of regulating the industry.
This bill is basically what the deeming regulations did to the U.S. The anti-vaping groups in Quebec are doing the same thing too. They are putting out press releases showing how major health associations want vaping products regulated and how they need to protect the kids.
S-5 will prohibit any person, not just store owners, “any person” from making statements about vaping having less risk than smoking.
It restricts advertising and promotional materials based on what could conceivably appeal to youth. They use broad language and don’t specify what is considered promotional or appealing to youth.
It will ban flavors since flavors attract kids
Every product in a vape shop will be considered a tobacco product, including batteries, tanks, devices, cotton, vegetable glycerin, and so on.
So yeah, pretty scary news for Quebec.
It’s a good short and informative documentary and I would recommend watching it, even if you don’t live there, just because it gets you fired up to do something to help.
Anyway, if you live in Quebec, you need to fight this bill, here’s a petition and also here’s some great information about what you can do along with a list of senators and members of parliament who you can contact.