WCB Ban is "Fascistic"

by James Smith
April 1999

The demand that the WCB implement a ban on restaurant smoking is, to use a harsh description, fascistic. Instead what we require in terms of policy is a comprehension among our citizens about the concept of private property rights and voluntary exchange.

In essence, the restaurant owners should be acknowledged to possess an inviolable property right to their restaurants. We should leave them to establish the type of dining environment which correspond with their values. If others wish to establish relationships with the restaurant owners, either as paying customers or employees, they must be prepared to negotiate for the dining and employment conditions with the proprietor. If the creator of the restaurant chooses not to extend certain services or work conditions she should not be forced to do so by the populace or the government.

Part of the fundamental requirement of a free society is the recognition, by all of us, that when we create values in the form of property it is the individuals who actually bring the property into existence. They should be acknowledged to possess the authority over the property's use and control.

The problem with regulations, regardless of how well-meaning they are, is that they use the coercive power of the State - quite often at the command of some particular special interest group - to initiate the use of physical force towards some property owner.

The rational alternative is to have a constitutional statement acknowledging the inviolability, and promising the complete protection of, the individual's property rights. We would then have a society where we would no longer be allowed to expropriate the product of each other's labor. In other words, we would have to construct our own values instead of using the power of the State to steal the values of our fellows.

Imagine the tremendous opportunities and diversity of values which such a libertarian system would allow you and your children, to build and flourish within.

(Letter to the Coquitlam NOW, March 12, 1999)