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TWO PRESS CONFERENCES

The first will be on the sidewalk in front of Vancouver General Hospital (near the Main Entrance, at 855 W. 12th Ave.) at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, January 12, 2011.

The second will be on the front steps of the Parliament Buildings (in Victoria) at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 13, 2011.

For more info, please contact Errol @ 778 899-4832 or click here.

Attention: SCHOOL PRINCIPALS, COUNSELLORS, et al…especially those whose schools are within a kilometre or two of the Lougheed Highway/Hwy #7 [westbound, starting just west of Mission], Broadway, south on Oak St., Highway 99 [except the Massey Tunnel] and Highway 17, to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal…then Pat Bay Highway/Hwy #17, Blanshard St., west on Bay St. and south on Government St. to the Parliament Buildings.

Airspace Action on Smoking and Health — Canada’s leading all-volunteer anti-tobacco organization — is proud to present the

JOURNEY for a TOBACCO-FREE WORLD HOME-COMING RUN

The Home-Coming Run will cover 123 kilometres over 3 days; a total of 93 km on January 11 and 12 (on the Lower Mainland)…and the final 30 km on January 13 (on southern Vancouver Island).

School children of all ages (escorted by parents, teachers, principals, counsellors et al) are invited to come out and cheer Errol on — and even walk/run with him — as he makes his way toward the Parliament Buildings…officially marking the end of the walking/running portion of his very successful 6-month and more than 6,000 km (a marathon a day, 6 days a week) JOURNEY for a TOBACCO-FREE WORLD.

For more info, please contact Errol @ 778 899-4832 or click here.

THE JTFW HOME-COMING RUN!

All the details have not yet been finalized, but we can tell you this:

The Home-Coming Run (HCR) — a total of 123 km (1 km for each Canadian killed by tobacco, each and every day) — will take place over a period of 3 days, from Tue, Jan 11 to Thu, Jan 13, 2011… MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

DAY 1

START: Tuesday, January 11, 2011… 7:30 a.m.
at the intersection of the Lougheed Highway/Hwy #7 and Nelson St. (between Silverdale and Mission, near the eastern end of a long straight stretch). Errol and his support crew will be at that intersection — rain/snow or shine — for about half an hour prior to the launch of the JTFW HCR. Since there is currently a lot of highway construction in that area, we chose #7 and Nelson because it’s a relatively big and safe area. The HCR will actually commence at 8:00 a.m., from about 0.7 km west of the #7/Nelson intersection.

FINISH: Tuesday, January 11, 2011… 5:00 p.m.
at Vancouver General Hospital, 855 W. 12th Ave., Vancouver (in front of the Main Entrance/Pattison Pavillion).

Total distance: 63 km (1 1/2 marathons)…with one very brief stop at the Terry Fox statue at the Port Coquitlam library.

DAY 2

START: Wednesday, January 12, 2011… 9:00 a.m. at VGH.

FINISH: Wednesday, January 12, 2011… 3:00 p.m. at Tsawwassen ferry terminal.

Total distance: 30 km.

DAY 3

START: Thursday, January 13, 2011… 9:00 a.m. (after catching the 7:00 a.m. sailing from Tsawwassen)
at Swartz Bay ferry terminal.

FINISH: Thursday, January 13, 2011… 2:00 p.m. at the B.C. Legislature.

Total distance: 30 km.

Anyone who has ever been touched by tobacco (virtually everyone!) is invited to come out and join Errol for any period of time at all…5 minutes, 5 hours, all day or even ALL 3 DAYS!

CORPORATE SPONSORS ARE ONCE AGAIN BEING SOUGHT, ESPECIALLY HOTELS…TO PUT ERROL (and possibly a Support Crew of 2 or 3) UP FOR THE NIGHTS OF JANUARY 10, 11, 12 AND 13 (10th, 11th + 12th in the Lower Mainland, 13th in Victoria).

Stay tuned for more details.

ATTENTION MEDIA:  Please contact Errol directly, at 778 899-4832

Anyone who has been an anti-tobacco activist for more than 5 minutes is painfully aware of ‘disappointment’.  It’s now been 3 days since I completed the ‘run, walk or crawl’ portion of the Journey for a Tobacco-Free World (JTFW)… and the disappointment of ZERO MEDIA in New York City (NYC) is still stinging, big time.

Despite a great deal of progress (in terms of smoking bans, tobacco advertising and sponsorship bans, etc.), the carnage caused by tobacco industry products continues, virtually unfettered.  In fact, it’s getting worse… much worse!  And fast!

Forty-six years after the first U.S. Surgeon-General’s Report on the hazards of smoking — with the current annual global death toll from tobacco industry products standing at 5.4 million — the World Health Organization is predicting that that death toll will actually DOUBLE within the next 10 years, primarily as a result of the tobacco industry’s extremely successful (and ongoing, with no end in sight) ‘rape and pillage’ program in developing nations… most notably, in Africa and, as always, targeting kids in their early teens and even pre-teens (the industry’s “new recruits” and/or “replacement smokers”).

For very good and obvious reasons, so many of us are often too quick to point the finger of blame primarily (or even exclusively) at the tobacco industry.  That is a big mistake!  ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT (but especially federal governments of the world, both individually and collectively) ARE — because of their general ignorance and/or refusal to recognize the tobacco epidemic for what it is…and deal with it accordingly — ULTIMATELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE SITUATION!

And so it was that, after well over 30 years of anti-tobacco activism under my belt, I set off on the Journey for a Tobacco-Free World.  It was a truly amazing and life-changing half year for me…and something that could not have happened without the absolutely incredible support of all of you:  Family, friends, colleagues and even the hundreds of complete strangers I met along the way.  Much more about that later but, for now, please allow me to ‘vent’  a little more about one of the biggest ‘disappointments’ of my life.

On Sunday, November 26, 2010, at about 4:00 p.m., I officially completed my 6,000 kilometre trans-continental anti-tobacco “run, walk or crawl” — “from Victoria to Montreal”, then south to New York City — by dipping my foot in the Atlantic Ocean (at Rockaway Point, directly south of Brooklyn) exactly 182 days, 2 hours and 20 minutes after dipping my foot in the Pacific.

Clearly, one of the biggest moments of my life… and nobody else was there!

Feel free to feel a little sad for me (okay, that’s enough!) but, to all of my family and friends — and to all of those anti-tobacco colleagues and the hundreds of complete strangers who supported me — do not feel any guilt whatsoever.  You may be thinking that if you had given more, the outcome might have been different.  But please don’t:  No matter the size of the contribution (whether in terms of one or more of the following; time, energy, money, best wishes and/or even just a big thumbs up, a toot of the horn and a wave, etc.) that each and every one of you made, it was very much appreciated.

What ultimately determines how ‘successful’ — or not — a project like the JTFW will be is the media.  And while I am extremely grateful for all of the (mostly small-town) media coverage the JTFW did receive, there was, clearly, not enough of it; it just never ‘snow-balled’ in the same way that other such events have in the past.

Despite the best efforts of Gar Mahood (Executive Director of the world-renowned Non-Smokers’ Rights Association) — as well as my calls to 14 of the biggest media outlets in Toronto — the JTFW got absolutely ZERO MEDIA coverage in Toronto.  Perhaps it was the International Thumb-Twiddling Competition that had the Toronto media’s undivided attention!?!

The Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control (in Montreal) — and many of its member/partner organizations — helped me get over that as they organized what turned out to be the biggest and best reception/protest outside the Canadian head office of Imperial Tobacco.  As I mentioned to the media who attended that event (after telling them that the JTFW was continuing south, to NYC), the QCTC had set the bar very high for my colleagues in NYC.

I suppose it could be argued that my timing, to wrap up the JTFW, could have been better:  The original plan was to arrive in NYC on “Black Friday”, the day after (the American) Thanksgiving.

But here’s a guy who’s on the verge of completing his 6-month, 6,000 km JTFW, doing his small part to prevent the deaths of more than 1,100 Americans, EACH AND EVERY DAY!  And what captured the attention (and, dare I say, the imagination) of the New York media?  THE DRESS CODE FOR NYC CABBIES!!!  Apparently some NYC taxi customers/passengers have not been amused when they discover what their driver is — or is not, as the case may be — wearing.  In addition to muscle shirts and tank tops, some NYC cabbies have been seen wearing…wait for it…bathing suits!  Interesting?  Funny?  Disgusting?  Whatever!  Nobody ever died as a result of what any cabbie was or wasn’t wearing!

In closing:  I’ve never been good at asking for help of any kind…least of all, money.  But, with a great deal of practice over the last couple of years (especially the last 6 months), it has become somewhat easier, despite all of the (mostly corporate) rejection.

IF YOU OR A LOVED ONE HAVE BEEN TOUCHED BY TOBACCO — AND YOU WANT THE BIGGEST BANG FOR YOUR ANTI-TOBACCO BUCK — PLEASE SEND IT TO:  Airspace Action on Smoking and Health   Box 18004, 1215c 56th St.   Delta, B.C.   (Canada)   V4L 2M4

And I say that with one caveat:  If you’ve already contributed, we do NOT want more money from you; we only want money from those millions of people who have not yet contributed!

Well, this is definitely not my most eloquent writing ever, but let me end it with what I believe are a couple of excellent questions:

WHAT PART OF “Tobacco is, by far, the leading — and most easily and cheaply preventable — cause of disease, disability and premature death.” DO POLITICIANS (especially those in government) NOT UNDERSTAND?

HOW BAD DOES IT HAVE TO GET BEFORE GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD TAKE OFF THE KID GLOVES AND TREAT TOBACCO LIKE THE EPIDEMIC THAT IT TRULY IS?

Again, THANK YOU ALL, SO MUCH, FOR ALL OF YOUR WONDERFUL SUPPORT!  SEE YA SOON!!!

Errol and a different Grim Reaper at Imperial Tobacco

Remembrance Day was an extremely long day, in many wonderful ways:  I met so many anti-tobacco colleagues and supporters…most notably a group of about 40 young people who, along with about 10 adults, gave me a very loud and boisterous reception as I — accompanied by Stan Shatenstein and 8 youth (and their teacher, `M.C.`) — ran to Imperial Tobacco, where I gave the first of 4 speeches, followed by many media interviews (I don`t have a full list of media who attended, but CTV was there and 24 Hours).

A huge thank you to Heidi, Flory, Francoise (“Grim” for this event) and everyone else at the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control, as well as Joanne, Joe and others with tobaccoinfo.ca (an incredible resource for, well, tobacco info) and so many others.  And “Merci!” to the Montreal Police Department, which provided a police officer and a police car (with red and blue lights flashing), blocking the lane that we occupied in front of Imperial Tobacco.  All in all, very impressive!

It`s late… and I`m up very early tomorrow, as I make my way toward New York with renewed enthusiasm and inspiration.

Thank you, again… ALL OF YOU!

More pictures

Errol arriving in Montreal

Running through the smoke

by Étienne Laberge

What would you do to convince young people not to smoke? Retired British Colombian anti-tobacco activist Errol Povah asked himself the same question before deciding he’d cross the country running from one ocean to the other to denounce the practices of the tobacco industry.

The resident of Victoria, BC has been running the equivalent of a marathon a day since May 31st just to sensitize young people not to smoke.

Determined to save on hotel costs, he sleeps in his minivan. “I run around 20 kilometres, then I retrace my steps to the van for a total of 42km. I get in the van and drive another 20km down the road”, he explains.

Thursday, the 50-something athlete stopped in Montreal, in front of the offices of Imperial Tobacco, after 5 000 km of jogging. An anti-tobacco delegation, including some 30 students from Collège Charlemagne, greeted him with cheers and congratulations for his accomplishment.

Youth in the target’s bull’s-eye

“Tobacco sellers continue to mock public health by developing new products ever more attractive for young people”, he said to a rally made up mostly of high school students.

Maxime Roderbourg, a member of the Gang allumée at his school, said he was surprised at the runner’s tenacity. “He’s brave to run. It’s very cold this morning.”

Errol Povah hasn’t put his bags away yet as he’s heading Friday for New York and the headquarters of Philip Morris International, some 700 km from Montreal.

“I hope I’ll be as well received there as I have been here”, he said enthusiastically, pointing at the group surrounding him.

A tough challenge

The sheer length of his route has forced him to do much of it alone.

Despite the exceptional side of his run, he refuses to consider it unique. He reminds people that Terry Fox (5 373 km, running), Steve Fonyo (7 924 km, running) and Rick Hansen (40 000 km in a wheelchair) did the same thing, or better, given their respective handicaps.

Original article in French: http://24hmontreal.canoe.ca/24hmontreal/actualites/archives/2010/11/20101111-142213.html

More pictures

I expect to be in Montreal by Saturday, Oct 30.

Will update the schedule soon.

Thanks again to everyone for your good wishes, etc.