[ad_1]
Shisha bar owners in the city are seeing their livelihoods go up in smoke.
On Wednesday, the community and utility committee of the city council proposed a ban on smoking shisha in bars. The committee pbaded a motion asking the administration to prepare amendments to the city's public places bylaw, which would ban shisha and water pipes in public and commercial spaces. The restrictions would be aligned with the regulation of the use of tobacco and cannabis.
"For me, it's forbidding culture and depriving businesses," said Ghada Ghazal, owner of Co Co Di Lebanese-Mediterranean restaurant on Jasper Avenue and 114 Street.
Several other shisha bar owners echoed his feelings.
Ghazal said that she was not against the rules and regulations, and that she was not opposed to more checks and balances. But she said that banishing shisha is not right.
"Everyone knows us about chicha, so people come here to eat and smoke shisha."
Ghazal and his family opened their restaurant in 2001.
A shisha or hookah, hookah or water pipe is a way of smoking tobacco, sometimes mixed with fruit or molbades, through a bowl and a pipe or tube.The tube ends with a tip that the smoker uses to inhale the smoke burnt substances.
The city's shisha bar owners insist that they do not serve tobacco.
Lily Ghazal, Co Co Di co-owner, shisha that they serve It's not tobacco but molbades.
A sunny and hot Thursday, she sat on the patio / sidewalk of her restaurant and smoked peppermint flavored shisha
. "And it's a choice. It's our culture. After dinner, we smoke the shisha.
Mulugeta Tesfay, owner of the Nyala Lounge in the north of the city, said the proposed ban not only affects culture but livelihoods
"This is not easy, "he said.
Omar Hagir, director of the Sahara Palace at 10807 Castle Downs Rd., Accepted.
He said that his staff of about 40 people also includes a number of Syrian refugees who do not speak English very well and could lose their lives
"These guys can not even find work at McDonald's where they were trying to do it, "he said. "People will go on welfare .It is a disaster for everyone."
Not only is he angry at people who are losing their jobs, Hagir said he had not had a chance to defend hookah bars at the meeting.
He said that he had received a copy of the document about the problems of crime and disorder in shisha parlors on Tuesday night.
"It was a short notice," he said. "They sent us a document saying that it was violence and when we got there, they went back to health problems." We were not even ready to talk about it. "
The city has identified 44 hookah bars, and police have been called to 80 cases of violence and disorder at these locations in 2017 and 20 in 2018. According to the report, violence or disorder has been reported. reported in or on 30 of 44 hookah sites.
"A guy on the street is accused of stealing a chocolate bar and you are also charged because you're standing next to him," says Hagir. what is right? "
At the committee meeting, Palwasha Khan of the Canadian Cancer Society said that he had studied all the chemicals in shisha smoke and found little difference between two, she said that chemicals that have zero tolerance in the health code and s safety at work,
Hagir stated that the owners of shisha bar present at the meeting were not allowed to defend this.
Another problem that worries these homeowners is that the city has asked them to modernize the ventilation system of their restaurants, even though the ban is there.
The cost to improve is $ 40,000 to $ 50,000.
The city will pay back the money spent on the ventilation system, Hagir asked.
Ghazal said that since she does not have the required ventilation system in her restaurant, she can not serve the shisha. This has affected her business, she said, and it has dropped about 40 percent in the last two weeks.
Tesfay had another question for city officials
"Why now?" Shisha and nargile bars have been in the city for about 20 years, he said.
"You legalize marijuana, but you take hookah bars?"
[ad_2]
Source link
