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He noted that city bylaws expressly prohibit anyone from “interfering with the comfort and convenience of other transit riders.”

Ottawa’s public transit system is not an outlier on this issue. The use of e-cigarettes is banned on both Montreal and Vancouver’s system.

And the Toronto Transit Commission will be bringing a bylaw amendment forward later this year to prohibit e-cigarettes on all TTC property.

While e-cigarettes do not create the same smoke as traditional cigarettes, the vapour does contain nicotine, some of which the user exhales.

That exhaled vapour may be unwanted by people near the e-cigarette user.

O’Connor went further to say that recently reworded bylaws would treat e-cigarettes like regular cigarettes, meaning they would be banned wherever regular cigarette use is banned.

“Members may recall that, by virtue of amendments made to the City’s Parks and Facilities By-law, City Council in June 2012 broadened the definition of ‘smoke’ or ‘smoking’ to capture a wider array of activities. Therefore, it is my opinion that this expanded definition of “smoke” or “smoking” effectively prohibits the use of e-cigarettes and ‘vaping’ in City of Ottawa parks and other outdoor municipal properties,” he said.

Users of e-cigarettes are advised to use the devices away from public places, and in the “smoking spots” that have sprung up on municipal property.

Users of e-cigarettes say they are not surprised by the latest ban. But they’re not impressed either.