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The new smoking area at a Thunder Bay, Ont., bus terminal — a small, fenced-off pen — has critics wondering where the marginalization of smokers will stop.

“I think it’s getting to be a bit much,” says Angie Massaro, a non-smoker from the area, who calls the new smoking pen ridiculous. “Smokers have rights too.”

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The city built the pen in response to complaints about second-hand smoke on the bus platform. “The Water St. terminal has a very small, narrow property so people were smoking on the platform and the city was receiving complaints,” says transit manager Brad Loroff.

Ms. Massaro says “it’s strange because it’s a pretty big platform; if the smoke offends someone there are other places for them to go.”

But a Thunder Bay by-law makes smoking within three metres of the entrance of any workplace illegal. The city considered making the entire platform smoke-free but instead “set up a designated smoking area to provide more structure. We’ve always told people where they shouldn’t smoke, so this is just an effort to tell them where they should smoke,” said Mr. Loroff.

Mr. Loroff admits there will probably be backlash to the project but insists, “it was designed to be as inviting and accommodating as possible. It’s an attractive design; it faces the waterfront and lake superior — its not tucked away in the back of the building beside garbage cans.”

National Post