Ticketed for smoking in his own car
MAN, 76, FED UP WITH FINES
Harry Kraemer knows darn well that smoking isn’t good for you but it’s a 60-year habit he doesn’t want to break.
The 76-year-old owner of Sparkles Cleaning Service is a healthy guy who loves a puff or two when he’s alone, sometimes at home with the windows open in his rec room or in his Porsche SUV, minding his own business and away from others who could breathe in his second-hand fumes.
What he doesn’t like are those he calls “the smoke police,” the Smoke-Free Ontario enforcement officers who he believes have placed a no-smoking sign as a target on his back.
The provincial anti-smoking laws set out stringent rules banning smoking in enclosed workplaces, enclosed public places, outdoor patios and vehicles where children are passengers and other spaces to protect people from second-hand smoke.
But Kraemer scored one for the Marlboro Man last week when he had three workplace smoking infractions dismissed at Provincial Offences Court.
Kraemer was slapped with the charges last fall for lighting up inside his luxury SUV in a parking lot, just after he had bought a doughnut and coffee from Tim Hortons.
The vehicle’s ownership is registered to Sparkles and officers argued it was a workplace vehicle. Kraemer said it was for his personal use.
“This is my personal car that I drive from home to work and from work to home,” he said.
“The justice of the peace said, ‘I haven’t heard one shred of evidence that that car was ever used for business for Sparkles,’” said the victorious Kraemer.
Kraemer has already paid financial penalties for his bad habit and likely ruffled the feathers of the anti-smoking authorities.
About a year ago, an enforcement officer came to his business in London, Ont., for a routine check. Kraemer said he tended to smoke in his second-floor office away from the rest of the business with the door closed, the window open and a fan blowing.
“There’s no smoke that ever goes down to where the employees are,” he said.
Kraemer said the officer came into his office and opened a desk drawer to discover an ashtray and a butted out cigarette. He issued two tickets to Kraemer, each carrying a $350 fine.
“I was annoyed. Isn’t one ticket enough?” said Kraemer.
Kraemer had some words with the officer and told him to leave. “I verbally told him to get the hell out of my office and I said some very nasty things maybe, I don’t know.”
The officer, Kraemer said, told him, “We’ll be back.”
Kraemer paid the fines.
Then last fall came the tickets in the Tim Hortons lot for smoking in an enclosed workplace, failing to have a no-smoking sign in his SUV, and failing to properly supervise a workplace.
The enforcement officer testified he was acting on “an anonymous complaint” when he watched Kraemer get into his SUV, drive to the coffee shop and through the drive-thru and park.
“I proceeded to have my coffee, my doughnut and my cigarette, and he walked up and he gave me three tickets,” Kraemer said.
With possible fines that could have run into thousands of dollars, Kraemer took it to court.
His defence lawyer Gordon Cudmore successfully argued that Kraemer wasn’t an employee, the SUV wasn’t a workplace where an employee might actually work and that “common sense” would dictate that Kraemer wasn’t breaking any smoking law.
“It’s just a waste of taxpayers’ money as far as I’m concerned,” Cudmore said about the charges.
“And the law was never intended to consider a situation like this.”
THERE’S NO SMOKE THAT EVER GOES DOWN TO WHERE THE EMPLOYEES ARE.