As more Whitehorse residents and businesses face charges of breaking the smoking bylaw, the conduct of bylaw officers enforcing the regulations is coming into question.

In bylaw court Tuesday morning, before pleading guilty to smoking in a public place, Betty Kociuk asked justice of the peace Gary Burgess whether officers are permitted to yell and make people in a bar feel intimidated when they're enforcing the bylaw.

'Are they allowed to scream and holler and rant and rave?' she questioned.

The officer got in her face to the point that she thought he might hit her, she told the court.

Kociuk also said that when a customer was rolling a smoke in the bar which he planned to take outside, an officer yelled at him.

However, both Burgess and bylaw constable Bonnie Howell told her it's an issue she would have to take up with the city's bylaw enforcement manager, John Taylor.

Under further questioning by Kociuk, Burgess suggested that if the regulations under the bylaw aren't known by staff, the bylaw office can be contacted to go over the bylaw.

After entering her guilty plea and being given a month to pay the $100-fine, Kociuk said outside the courtroom she plans to take up the issue of the constable's conduct with Taylor.

'I'm going to pursue this,' said Kociuk.

The charge against her dates back to late February.

Kociuk, an employee at the Blue Moon Saloon, said she was having a smoke and had it in her hand when the bylaw officer walked in and started yelling at her.

'(He was screaming) You work here! How could you do this?' ' said Kociuk.

On an afternoon with only eight to 10 people in the bar, all eyes turned to watch the situation. Kociuk noted that before smoking was banned in Whitehorse bars in January 2005, there would have been about 60 people on such an afternoon.

Kociuk also wonders why she didn't get a warning for her first offence when she was under the impression from local media reports that everyone would get one warning.

'I honestly thought I got a warning,' she said.

Also scheduled to appear in court Tuesday were Ben Peters, charged with smoking in a public place, as well as the Blue Moon Saloon, charged with permitting patrons to smoke in the building, and the Capital Hotel, which was charged twice with permitting patrons to smoke.

After not showing up to court, guilty pleas were entered with orders to pay the fine.

Capital Hotel owner Maurice Byblow said in an interview today he simply forgot to show up for Tuesday's court date to fight the charge, but is retaining legal counsel to fight a third charge that has yet to go to court.

There have also been discussions between the Capital and the '98, owned by city councillor Mel Stehelin, on joining forces to fight the bylaw.

Even after a recent amendment which took out a portion of the bylaw requiring staff to remove patrons smoking in an establishment, Byblow said, not much has changed.

In one case, he said a woman was smoking in a stall in the women's washroom.

Bylaw officers waited for her to come out and handed her a ticket and proceeded with a $500-ticket against the bar as well for permitting her to smoke. How, Byblow asked, can staff monitor that sort of situation?

Another situation saw a man walk into the bar with a lit cigarette. The bartender was on the phone and before she got a chance to get off the phone and deal with him, Bylaw nailed both the smoker and bar with a fine. That case has yet to go to court, he said.

In yet another case, a man was smoking at the back of the bar. With the bartender at the front of the building, Bylaw came in through the back door and again issued tickets to both the smoker and the bar.

'The reality is people do smoke,' Byblow said, noting he doesn't advocate the habit.

The city should have proceeded with a more gradual approach to eliminating smoking in public places with smoking and non-smoking sections with appropriate ventilation standards, he said.

If a person was to head down any downtown back alleys, the number of people smoking will show just how prevalent it is.

'There's a hypocrisy there as well,' said Byblow, noting it's also the city which hands out his business licence enabling him to sell cigarettes.

Meanwhile, Taylor said officers are instructed to abide by a code of conduct which, in summary, is to treat others as they would want to be treated.

He admits that in many cases they do use loud voices when they go into bars so people know they are present.

'It's just so everybody knows,' Taylor said in an interview Tuesday afternoon.

He noted that when he went into the Blue Moon and saw the patron rolling a smoke, he said loudly he hoped the smoker would be taking it outside after it was rolled.

When there is a complaint of an officer's conduct, senior constable Dave Pruden will do an internal investigation on what happened, with often both the officer and complainant sitting down to work out the situation.

Taylor said he'd be willing to listen to any complaints that come forward.