A trial involving two hookah shops and the City of Vancouver is scheduled to resume this week.
The June 26 28 court dates will continue the trial that began in November of last year. The trial follows fines issued by the city in 2009 against the Ahwaz Hookah House on Georgia and the Persian Tea House on Davie for violating an earlier city by-law banning the burning of any substance in public buildings.
The first part of the trial lasted two weeks, but that wasnt enough to hear all evidence, says lawyer Dean P. Davison, who is representing the shop owners Hamid Mohammadian of the Persian Tea House and Abbas Abdiannia of Ahwaz.
Among those to appear when the trial resumes is Barbara Windsor. Now retired, the then-deputy chief licence inspector for Vancouver will testify as to the research efforts undertaken by the City into the health risks of hookah smoking.
What we are saying is that they have a burden to show there are health risks, and that those health risks outweigh protections under the Charter, says Davison.
Were talking about herbal hookah; there hasnt been much research done on that. [The City] made this decision to ticket my clients without, I would suggest, having enough information on the actual health ramifications of smoking herbal hookah as opposed to tobacco hookah.
Hookah smoking is a part of Middle Eastern culture and religion, says the Persian Tea Houses Mohammadian.
In the Middle East, theres a hookah shop on every street, like Starbucks, says Mohammadian, who has been running the Persian Tea House for 16 years. The business now supports himself, his wife, their two children and a son-in-law.
Lots of people who are from the Middle East come to my shop. Right now we have many students from Saudi Arabia in Vancouver, and when they see my business they jump. They are really really happy.
The City had no official statement to make, due to the ongoing nature of the trial.
The definition in the bylaw says burn or light any substance, says Davison. It doesnt specify what that substance would be. He adds that the two herbal hookah shops burn the same charcoal Catholic churches uses to burn incense.
He and his clients hope that the 2007 bylaw will be struck down, and rewritten to be more specific and to allow herbal hookah smoking in Vancouver.
