Latest news with #Gitanes
Ottawa Citizen
2 days ago
- Business
- Ottawa Citizen
G Burger says farewell to Elgin Street before moving to new location
When Nader Salib originally put pen to paper for his Elgin Street lease, he had no idea that the space would one day become home to Gitanes Burger. Article content Born out of the COVID-19 pandemic as a pop-up, sister-restaurant to Gitanes, the eatery colloquially known as G Burger became a permanent spot by 2022. Article content Article content 'I think that period of time changed a lot in people's lives, and I was just more excited about the burger concept,' Salib said. Article content Article content After 10 years spent on Elgin Street, Salib is ready to establish G Burger's new home on Wellington Street West, which he is hopeful will open by the end of August. June 20 is the eatery's final day on Elgin Street. Article content 'When we originally signed the lease, it wasn't for a burger concept,' Salib said. 'The concept came about during COVID when we started doing takeout out of Gitanes, and we didn't want to do fine dining food for takeout. We thought we'd do burgers and it really took off. Article content 'The concept doesn't warrant that big space that's there, it just doesn't help it thrive. If anything, I think it holds it back a little bit.' Article content Article content It's 'super sad' to leave, Salib says, especially for the staff who have grown familiar with the Elgin Street location. Some staff who are now approaching 30 years old have worked in the same space since they were teenagers. Article content Article content 'We built a lot of memories there,' Salib said. 'The laughs we've had together and stories we shared together.… There's just too many to count. Article content 'I think all of us are kind of sad to move on, but for me personally, I was ready for a change.' Article content The Wellington Street location that G Burger will soon inhabit once belonged to the iconic John's Diner, which closed last April. Article content It's 'very flattering' to take over such a well-known location, according to Salib, who says the move is 'surreal' despite the pressure. Article content 'It's definitely big shoes to fill,' he said. 'I think the scariest thought was, 'Are people gonna come in and expect John's from G Burger? Are they going to come in and expect us to be doing the same things?' Article content 'Can we really be ourselves and thrive in that space?' Article content Regardless, Salib says he's 'super excited' to be in the Wellington Village neighbourhood, one of Ottawa's few areas that 'G Burger can see itself in' — the Glebe and Old Ottawa South being future potential expansions.
Malaysia Sun
01-06-2025
- Health
- Malaysia Sun
Calls for France to follow UK with generational tobacco ban
France recently banned single-use vapes and nicotine pouches as part of its plan to foster a tobacco-free generation. But, as the world marks the annual World No Tobacco Day on Saturday, a group of public health advocates and MPs want to go further by introducing a generational tobacco ban similar to the UK's. Smoking is no longer as fashionable in France as it was in the days ofSerge Gainsbourgchain-smoking Gitanes on TV. Yet it remains the country'sleading cause of preventable death, killing around 75,000 people a year. It is also linked to heart disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes, asthma, dementia and fertility issues. Over the past 30 years, France has cracked down on smoking banning advertising of tobacco products in 1991, smoking in public places in 2007 and sales to under-18s in 2009, and introducing plain packaging in 2017. These efforts have paid totheFrench Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), the number of regular smokers fell from 40 percent of adults in the mid-2010s to 23 percent in 2023 although this is still above the EU average. France becomes second European country to ban disposable e-cigarettes Only16 percentof 17-year-olds say they now smoke daily, down from 25 percent in 2017. Vaping, however, is on the rise, especially among teens, with around 6 percent using e-cigarettes daily. The recent bans on single-use vapes known as "puffs" and nicotine pouches are part of France'sNational Tobacco Control Planfor 2023-2027, which aims to reduce the adult smoking population to 20 percent by 2027, and teen smokers to 10 percent by 2028. The ultimate goal: a tobacco-free generation by 2032, with only 5 percent of under-18s smoking. Severing the link The best way to reach that goal is to prevent young people from starting smoking, says Professsor Loic Josseran, head of the Alliance Against Tobacco (ACT). "We know that 90 percent of smokers begin under the age of 18," he said. "The ban on sales to minors simply isn't enforced, there are no penalties and no controls." Losseren is calling for a UK-stylegenerational tobacco ban, which wouldprohibit sales of tobacco products to anyone born after 1 January, 2009 effectively raising the smoking age by one year each year until it applies to the whole population. The law, passed by the UK Parliament in March, is expected to take effect in January 2027. Earlier this week, ACT and France's public health agency (SPF) met with MPs to begin working on a similar initiative. Their proposal would make it illegal to sell tobacco including cigarettes, cigarillos and rolling tobacco to anyone born in 2014 or later, throughout their lives. "This measure, which may seem radical, is in fact an extension of the ban on sales to minors," Josseren argues. ACT says7 out of 10French people support the idea of a tobacco-free generation. It aims to place youngsters in a non-smoking, non-consuming environment severing contact with tobacco. "Since they won't have started smoking, they won't want to buy tobacco... We're not depriving them of anything, we're just offering them better health." He stressed that the measure targets sales, not consumption, and adult smokers will still be able to buy and consume tobacco. New Zealand was the first country to pass such a law in 2022, althoughit was scrapped by a subsequent coalition government in February 2024 to help fund tax cuts. Denmark, Malaysia and the American state of Nevada are also debating introducing similar legislation. 'Political courage' The UK law, initially proposed by the then-Conservative government and picked up by its Labour successor, earned broad cross-party backing, despite a few MPs on the right branding it an attack on personal freedom. In France, however, Josseran says gaining support "will need real political courage". So far, two MPs Nicolas Thierry from the Greens and Michel Lauzzana from the centre-right Ensemble coalition support the idea. Both were involved in the recent ban on puffs. But many remain hesitant. "A few are interested, but many are more concerned with the tobacco industry's arguments," Josseren says, noting that every MP has tobacconists in their constituency. "They fear they'll say: 'Be careful, if you bother me I'll tell everyone not to vote for you'." French tobacconists protest at anti-smoking law He acknowledges that a generational tobacco ban would eventually force tobacconists out of business. Meanwhile, he claims the industry is lobbying hard, pouring "several million euros into the National Assembly each year" to block public health laws. The industry is also diversifying. "We're seeing the creation of a nicotine market in which young people can choose between nicotine gum, beads, cigarettes, heated tobacco, chicha, vape..." He added: "It took us two years to ban puffs and already manufacturers are marketing new ways of delivering nicotine. That's why we need an umbrella law to prevent all these new forms coming on to the market." Environmental focus The tobacco industry defends its role in the French economy, citing job creation and tax revenues. Seventy-five percent of the price of a packet of cigarettes is tax an important source of income for the government, at a time when the state coffers are empty. Yet the OFDT says the financial equation weighs heavily against the state. While tobacco brings in around 13 billion per year, healthcare costs and losses in productivity due to early death or illness amount to 20 billion. The total cost of tobacco to French society in 2019 was estimated at 156 billion, including environmental damage and social impact. Cigarette butts, the plastic pollution that's hiding in plain sight Each of the 30 billion cigarette butts discarded annually in France pollutes up to 500 litres of water. Josseren calls it an "environmental horror" involving deforestation, land-grabbing, child labour and pesticide use. "It's an industry that plunders and crushes life everywhere it goes," he says. "The only thing it grows is profits." Anti-smoking campaigns now increasingly focus on tobacco's environmental footprint, which resonates more with young people than health warnings. "Saying that smoking isn't good, that we're going to die from smoking in 40 years' time, doesn't interest young people. I can't blame them," he said. "We have to explain that the environment is the real lever protecting the environment, respecting others. That can lead them to turn away from these products. That's our approach." Originally published on RFI
The Independent
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Paris Metro bans poster showing smoking advocate David Hockney holding a cigarette
It might seem a perfect match: the French capital – any mention of which inspires images of Seine-adjacent cafes engulfed by a nicotine haze – and one of the world's foremost advocates of smoking, David Hockney. But despite the artist famously championing the habit he has enjoyed since 1954, a photograph of the 87-year-old holding a cigarette has been enough to put him at odds with authorities in the capital of the nation famous for Gauloises and Gitanes cigarettes. Next week, Paris will host the largest exhibition of Hockney's career, curated by the legendary Sir Norman Rosenthal at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. The exhibition, at the Frank Gehry-designed building in the Bois de Boulogne, will showcase nearly 400 of Hockney's works spanning his seven-decade career. But as the artist prepares for his blockbuster show, citizens travelling on the Paris Metro may be unaware of the significant exhibition taking place in the city. In a development Hockney described as 'complete madness', lawyers for the Paris transport network have contacted Hockney to inform him that a photograph showing him sitting alongside a new self-portrait cannot be used to advertise the show. The Parisian transport authorities have taken issue with the fact that Hockney is holding a cigarette in the photograph – but have no objection to the fact that the painting he is holding also depicts him smoking. The painting is titled Play within a Play within a Play and Me with a Cigarette. Hockney told The Independent: 'The bossiness of those on charge of our lives knows no limits. To hear from a lawyer from the Metro banning an image is bad enough but for them to cite a difference between a photograph and a painting seems, to me, complete madness. 'They only object to the photograph even though I am smoking also in the painting I am holding! I am used to the interfering bossiness of people stopping people making their own choices but this is petty. Art has always been a path to free expression and this is a dismal.' It is far from the first time that Hockney has faced opposition to his beloved habit, however, with the famed anti-smoking advocate's father – a 1955 portrait of whom is included in Hockney's upcoming Paris show – staunchly opposed to the practice. But for Hockney, the act of smoking is firmly entwined in his work and approach to art. 'He's 87. He has smoked, I don't know, maybe 100 cigarettes a day and he still smokes. His lungs are not in a good way, and he accepts that fact,' Rosenthal told The Independent 's editor-in-chief Geordie Greig in a recent interview discussing the upcoming exhibition. 'For him, smoking is a symbol of freedom, to end bossiness. He doesn't like being told on the packet some awful scare warning. He is very conscious of his physical fragility, but his mind is as clear as is his memory.' In further remarks following the row with Parisian transport authorities, Rosenthal said: 'Madness reigns. To have censorship of this kind with a poster promoting one of the greatest exhibitions of a living artist for a generation is beyond comprehension. Paris is a city of freedom and revolution wrapped into its history – this flies in the face of that. 'This does not make sense. But at least the show is brilliant – the biggest art show ever of Hockney, Britain's greatest painter.' The Independent has described the upcoming show as 'a spectacular, no-expense-spared, destination event for all art lovers'. Rosenthal said: 'He is the Picasso of our times, and when I say that, people laugh at me, as Picasso was the archetypal artist of the 20th century. But David Hockney is also an incredibly popular artist whose work changes how we see things. When there is a Picasso show at the Tate, there are queues around the block; the same with David. Both really looked, and showed what they saw, and brought joy.' The exhibition opens on 9 April and is due to run until 31 August.
