2326169 Ontario Inc. v. City of Toronto

Hookah lounge owners appealed a lower court decision upholding a city by-law that banned hookah use in licensed establishments.  The Court of Appeal held that the lower court's ruling was correct and dismissed the appeal.  

2326169 Ontario Inc. et al. v. The City of Toronto, 2017 ONCA 484, Court of Appeal for Ontario (2017)

  • Canada
  • Jun 13, 2017
  • Court of Appeal for Ontario

Parties

Plaintiff

  • 2326169 Ontario Inc. operating as Farouz Sheesha Café
  • 7923406 Canada Inc.
  • Club Layal El Sharke Inc.
  • Nile Palace Cafe
  • Oum Kulthoum

Defendant The City of Toronto

Legislation Cited

By-law No. 1331-2015 (adopted 10-Dec-2015)

City of Toronto Act 2006, SO 2006, c 11, Sch A

Occupational Health and Safety Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. O.1

Related Documents

Type of Litigation

Tobacco Control Topics

Substantive Issues

Type of Tobacco Product

"As the application judge noted, the appellants are licensed by the City to sell food and may continue to do so. Indeed, they may continue to sell shisha. What they cannot do is to permit the smoking of hookah pipes on their business premises. There is no doubt that many hookah lounges will suffer economic harm as a result of the by-law and may no longer be economically viable, but it does not follow that this is the by-law’s purpose. The protection of public health and safety necessarily has economic impact on the operation of the appellants’ businesses, but that impact is incidental to, rather than determinative of, the purpose of the by-law...The application judge reviewed the background to the passage of the bylaw, including the evidence of the City’s Medical Officer of Health, who reported to the City Council that hookah smoke was a health hazard to staff and patrons of establishments where it was smoked – regardless of what was smoked in the hookah. He noted that hookah smoking included some of the same carcinogenic chemicals associated with tobacco, and yet many wrongly assumed that hookah smoking was less harmful than smoking tobacco."