Fledgling BC magazine ordered to remove tobacco plants growing in its window

A nascent B.C. magazine publisher, Michael Chesney has been ordered to remove two tobacco plants that he is defiantly growing in the front window of his office. Chesney has just launched Comment Canada magazine in Nelson and, despite being a non-smoker, is apparently deliberately flouting the Tobacco Control Act. 

According to a story from the Province newspaper, he has been ordered by the Interior Health Authority to remove the plants from view or face a $575 daily fine. Health officials said that growing the plants in plain view amounted to "promoting tobacco and smoking to children".

While the plants were ostensibly grown to provide “shade” in a sunny front window, according to Chesney, he was really trying to do something else.
“I proved my point,” he said. 

That point...is “that the laws are stagnant and designed by people out of touch with reality.”

Comment Canada just published its first issue and charges $60 a year for a subscription. The 100-page first issue doesn’t carry any advertising. It describes itself as 

"a crowd-sourced collaborative media hub with hundreds of pieces of cutting edge content per issue– much is sourced from local contributors online media portals and interviews, with editorial and research content produced by a small team of creative Kootenay-ites."

“You write it, we print it — that’s our slogan,” said Chesney [interviewed by the Province], who used to have an advertising agency.