S.T.A.N.D. - Sisler Teens Against Nicotine and Drugs

Above is a group of students from S.T.A.N.D. - Sisler Teens Against Nicotine and Drugs. S.T.A.N.D. members were at the Manitoba Legislature last week. In a member's statement in the Legislature, I recognized the achievements of members of S.T.A.N.D. in their efforts to have smoking banned on school grounds all over Manitoba.

Here is my member's statement:

Sisler Teens Against Nicotine and Drugs
Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): A few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting a remarkable group of young people from Sisler High School, some of whom are sitting in the gallery today. These students are members of STAND, Sisler Teens Against Nicotine and Drugs, an organization that was founded in May of 2006 to educate students about the negative effects of tobacco and drugs.

The top priority of the group was to ban smoking on the grounds of Sisler High, and they immediately went to work collecting over 800 names on a petition in support of the ban. They were successful. The group then took their message to the school division which led to the Winnipeg School Division passing a division-wide tobacco ban in January, 2007. In the spring of 2007, STAND reached out to the tobacco farmers of Ontario offering support in their work to aid farmers choosing to transition to other agricultural products. Following this, the group launched a second petition calling on the provincial government to ban smoking on all publicly funded educational property. Over 4,000 signatures were collected and presented to the ministers of Education and Healthy Living, with the list of supporters calling for this action. STAND also met with me and we, the Liberals, prepared legislation to introduce to achieve this objective.

Last week the provincial government decided to act and has directed all school boards to ban smoking on school grounds throughout Manitoba. This is a major victory for STAND. I understand they're now looking at taking this national and I wish them all their success in getting a national ban on smoking on school grounds. I want to note that STAND was awarded the Manitoba youth volunteer award during the 2007-2008 school year and sponsored the first No Tobacco Day at the 2008 Red River Ex.

On September 18, that's tomorrow, the executives of STAND will receive an award from the Manitoba Lung Association in honour of their continuing work. I want to congratulate STAND on their work to date and wish them all the best of success in the future. Thank you.