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Roger Nugent was on the verge of being hired when he let it slip.

Yes, he confessed to employer Jack Kowalski, he did smoke, occasionally.

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Nugent was applying to manage “jet boats” that take tourists through the frothy rapids near Niagara Falls, but suddenly the expected job offer was turning to mist itself: the firm did not welcome cigarette users, he learned.

Still eager for the well-paying opportunity, he abruptly quit smoking and signed a contract that could mean termination if his bosses find he has taken up the habit again, at work or elsewhere.

I’m not hiring anybody in my organization that leaves work and goes home and smokes. I’m not going to do it

It was a dramatic case study of a unique hiring policy imposed by Kowalski, who co-owns three white-water boating outfits in two provinces.

As Canadian public-health experts explore radical ideas to achieve a tobacco “endgame,” the Montreal-based entrepreneur has for decades struck his own uncompromising blow against cigarettes, refusing to hire anyone who smokes, on the job or in the sanctity of his or her home.