Bar owners lose battle in smoking law war
Last Updated: Monday, November 20, 2006 | 3:10 PM ET
CBC News
The owners of several bars have failed to have a section of Quebec's new anti-smoking law temporarily suspended.
Quebec Superior Court ruled Tuesday afternoon that any economic hardship dogging owners does not justify a temporary exemption from the smoking ban.
The bar owners consortium had asked that a part of the anti-smoking law be lifted until the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on the legislation's constitutionality.
The Quebec court's decision is disappointing, but not surprising to bar owner Peter Sergakis, one of the most vocal anti-smoking law critics in the province.
"We knew it wasn't going to be easy to get this suspension. It doesn't happen often that a government suspends a law," he told Radio-Canada Monday afternoon.
The association of bar owners will be able to use the judge's ruling in their Supreme Court case, Sergakis said. The ruling reviews the arguments presented by the association, and acknowledges that financial losses have been incurred by some bar owners since the law took effect in May 2006.
There are conflicting reports about how much money bars have lost, but Sergakis is confident that the real impact will be felt as the temperature drops in the next several weeks.
"If there is no irreparable damage now to businesses, we'll see in the winter," he said Monday. Some bars estimate they've lost between 10 and 15 per cent of their beer sales, according to the Quebec association of bar owners.
Many Quebec bar owners remain skeptical about the law's long-term effect, and lawmakers' promise that when smoking was banned it would encourage a new clientele to frequent establishments.
Denis Pelletier, owner of the hip Le Maurice Night Club on Grande Allée Street in Quebec City says he's unsure business will ever get back to normal.
"We are all affected, and we're wondering where the infamous non-smokers who were supposed to be flocking to the bars actually are right now."
Pelletier and other bar owners would like to see a softening of the current legislation to allow some establishments to provide designated smoking areas.
Not surprisingly, the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control praised the judgment, saying it would have been a step backwards if the court had ruled any other way.
The association of Quebec bar owners will challenge the law's validity under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2007.
