Ok,
So, First of all... Despite being Deputy Director of CAVR, I cannot speak for the whole board of Directors, we have not yet had a chance to discuss this as a whole. Therefore, I am speaking as myself, Jay "TheVapingGuy" Hubbard and anything i say here is only my opinion and not neccessarily that of CAVR as a whole or of any of its Directors. I was present for the whole canadian portion of the show, and then left to confer with Matthew Stanko (Communications Director for CAVR). I cannot say that I was very impressed with the discussion. While there was a lot of information presented that i will need to spend a lot of time reading up on and researching, i truly felt that this was a very one sided discussion. The show presented an attitude of "If you disagree with us, or if you are not doing exactly what we say, in exactly they way we say to, and only when and how we say to, then you are an idiot and wasting your time". I can tell you that Matthew and I left that discussion very upset, frustrated and disgusted after being invited by Dimitris to call into the show, in what had every appearance of, but honestly not an openly stated, position of "Hey, come on our show and let us showcase you and the work that CAVR is doing" and yet when Matthew showed up he was quickly treated like an idiot who was wasting his time, and every time he made a statement, Cindy and Dimitris cut him and CAVR down for wasting his time, while fastidiously ignoring any statement he made.
i will remain silent on the label issue... i simply do not know enough on either side to inteligently speak to the topic. I am not opposed to the idea of having a standardized label system for all E-Liquid... however where there are two groups who actively disagree on the topic, both sides of which i consider to be relatively educated and well studied, i'm sure that in the end i cannot speak to what the exact law is or what the right thing to do is...
Nor will i discuss any of the vendor side of the house... what i will speak to is CAVR, and what CAVR does and does not do.
Cindy, and her lackey Rachel, quite vehemently refused to accept that CAVR is doing anything of any value. They specifically stated that CAVR is wasting its time and that they want the directors of CAVR to be doing "something of value". they also stated clearly that there is no value in writing letters to correct open statements by said organizations when they are clearly full of inaccurate information and lies or in writing to politicians to try to educate them and bring them onside so that, when we need their support, they will be there to stand on our side...
CAVR, much like CASAA, is NOT a consumer advocacy organization that has a mandate of attacking vendors, either for or against policies and practices. We are not in the habit or have as a mandate, any action against Vendors. Should a consumer have an issue with a Vendor, CAVR really isn't the correct place to reach out to. Keep in mind, that CAVR is literally just a few short months old and we are still working out how we are going to operate and have, as of this writing, not even developped a website other than the FB page, and has only written ONE letter, to the CCA. At our first Board meeting we decided that what CAVR does do is education and awareness... When we learn that a place has said "no vaping" in their place of business based on misinformation or the concept that Vaping is Illegal, when we learn that an article filled with lies comes up on the internet, or we find out that legislation is in the pipeline that needs to be fought... THAT is where CAVR has its place.
I'm not saying that ECTA or
www.ShowMeTheLaw.ca are not viable lines of action... but I take personal offence to the idea that CAVR is a joke and a waste of time. We are not full time employees of CAVR, we are not paid to do this, and we gain nothing from doing what we do, short of increasing awareness and education and ultimately helping to further the argument for Vaping in canada. We do believe that our actions are positive... they may not be big expensive attack ads and may not have the benefit of lawyers and full time staffers, but one small step at a time, we are trying to make a small difference...
In closing, there is a huge battle still to be waged, and i do believe that we do need to suss out many things... but when one person takes an attitude that every vendor and every advocate in canada is wrong because we refuse to step in line behind her and goosestep to her orders... that is an entirely repugnant issue.
Jason H. Hubbard
