Dear Minister Michel,

I am writing to you today to address the theatrical performance that was held in the West Block on Friday, by government-funded tobacco control leaders where they made claims that 50,000 high school students have started vaping since you took office and uses that figure to call for a national ban on flavours. In addition, I was particularly worried about the loud and forceful language about creating a ‘nicotine free Canada’. This kind of rhetoric is especially dangerous as it stigmatizes safer-nicotine products (like pouches and vapour products) and threatens our ability to help Canadians who smoke reduce their cigarette consumption and/or quit entirely.

This entire performance appears to be less about new evidence and more about manipulating a narrative to make you look bad.  That number is reframing population-level estimates, positioned in a way that creates urgency rather than solutions.

Public campaigns like this, particularly when paired with highly visible tactics such as bus shelter ads, risk crossing the line from advocacy into bullying. When messaging is simplified to slogans and selective data points, it can feel less like informed public health dialogue and more like an attempt to force a specific policy outcome. They want you to ignore the science, to ignore the hundreds of thousands of Canadians that oppose a flavour ban and do as they say. Not question their data or their science.

At a time like this, balanced engagement matters.

There are millions of adult Canadians who rely on safer, non-combustible nicotine products as an alternative to smoking. Yet their voices, and the principles of harm reduction, are often removed from the conversation. Meanwhile, cigarettes remain widely accessible across the country.

This is the contradiction Canadians are noticing!

I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to share consumer perspectives and discuss how policy can better reflect both youth protection and adult harm reduction. These are not competing goals, they are complementary when approached thoughtfully. I appreciate the many demands on your time, particularly given the current public pressure surrounding this issue.

I will be in Ottawa the week of May 25 and would greatly appreciate the opportunity to meet at a time that works for your schedule.

Thank you for your consideration, and I hope we can connect soon.

Sincerely,
Maria Papaioannoy