Ontario’s Superior Court has upheld\u00a0a decision by the city to ban hookah smoking in Toronto bars and cafes, but says it is\u00a0nevertheless “unfortunate” that the bylaw prohibits hookah use altogether rather than regulating it. \u00a0In a decision issued Friday, Justice\u00a0R. F. Goldstein,\u00a0while sympathetic to their plight, said the bylaw is in fact\u00a0legally valid and\u00a0must be seen in the broader context of the city’s anti-smoking campaign.\u00a0The Canadian Cancer Society applauded the\u00a0decision.<\/p>\n
The bylaw took effect April 1\u00a0amid widespread complaints by hookah-lounge owners that the ban was discriminatory. Lawyer Ryan Zigler, who represented four such owners, argued that the city didn’t have the power to ban hookah smoking, saying the bylaw was “confiscatory” because it effectively prohibited a lawful business and would cost workers jobs.<\/p>\n
As a result of Friday’s decision, Toronto now joins a handful of other municipalities in the province that\u00a0have banned water-pipe smoking.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"