First Nations smoke shop supporters welcome call on Ottawa
Trying to draw attention to court case and cause
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/12/2011 (5438 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Supporters of a First Nation smoke shop — raided twice since it opened last month — welcomed a call on Ottawa to help Manitoba stamp out contraband tobacco.
“If they’re going to pressure Canada, that’s good,” Craig Blacksmith, an employee of the Dakota Chundee Smoke Shop near Pipestone, said Monday.
“We’re trying to draw attention to our court case and our cause.”
The Canadian Convenience Store Association flew top executives to Winnipeg to draw public attention to their call for action.
“Our message to the Manitoba government is to step up and to the federal government is to step in,” said Association president Alex Scholten.
Scholten and association vice-president Michel Gadbois delivered letters to the riding office of Manitoba Health Minister Theresa Oswald and to the regional office of federal Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.
They also released video with a 17-year-old girl buying cigarettes at Chundee without showing ID for proof of age.
A spokeswoman, responding for the provincial health minister, said in addition to the two recent raids, the province is regulating the sale of tobacco for both public health reasons and tax administration.
“The investigation is continuing in both cases and charges are pending in both as well,” the spokeswoman said.
Last month, the Dakota Chundee Smoke Shop and Gaming Centre opened southwest of Brandon, in the heart of the Virden oil patch.
Chundee began selling federally approved tobacco products supplied by Quebec Mohawk distributors for about $40 a carton, less than half the $98 a carton normally sells for in Manitoba.
The First Nations tobacco sellers are challenging the province’s tobacco licensing authority. Nearly 80 per cent of the cost of cigarettes is from taxes.
alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca