The JTFW comes to Vancouver
Jun 8th, 2010 by admin
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Vancouver, here are a few details that may be of interest.
This shot, facing west/northwest, is taken from the world-famous Lions Gate (aka, First Narrows) Bridge. In the background, you see part of West Vancouver, which is on ‘the north shore’.
The stretch of road between the Lions Gate Bridge and downtown Vancouver is known as the Stanley Park Causeway. While not obvious in this particular shot, traffic was so heavy and fast-moving (“What 60 km/h limit?”) that conversation was virtually impossible (okay, my deaf ear didn’t help either, but…).
These shots are taken at the Coal Harbour end of ‘the seawall’, which encircles Stanley Park.
This is me approaching Canada Place which, among many other things (including a cruise ship terminal), is home to the Vancouver Borad of Trade, of which Imperial Tobacco is a fine, upstanding member. During my year as a member of the VBOT, I lobbied Darcy Rezak (the Managing Director of the Board) to kick IT out of the VBOT. He seemed receptive to listening to me, initially, but ultimately decided that IT was a “member in good standing” and, as long as the company continued to pay membership dues, it would remain a “member in good standing.” By the way, the back of my t-shirt says, “5,400,000 DEATHS EVERY YEAR FROM TOBACCO” (there’s some Thai language as well, as I picked this t-shirt up in Bangkok last November, while attending a huge [650-strong] anti-tobacco protest against a tobacco industry convention).
With IT being such a proud and upstanding member of the VBOT, it’s only appropriate that there be a smoke shop just a couple of metres from the entrance to Vancouver’s World Trade Centre (the VBOT is on the 4th floor of that building). And the question has to be asked, “Why does the ‘shingle’ in front of the smoke shop list everything but cigarettes, cigars and/or pipes…unless those products are considered “gifts” or “drugs” (no question about that)…or ‘gambling’ (lottery tickets)…or “candy”.
Standing in front of Vancouver’s World Trade Centre — and with a camera rolling — I once again called on Darcy Rezak and the Vancouver Board of Trade to do the right thing and kick Imperial Tobacco out of the VBOT. I’m not holding my breath, but remain eternally optimistic.
