http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=7836



Quebec smokers are being left out in the cold, literally, by a recent provincewide ban on smoking in enclosed public places.

Not only has the new law, which came into effect May 31, forced bar and restaurant patrons outside for a cigarette, it seems some smokers are also having a hard time finding a place to live.

"There are more cases this year of people telling us they've been refused an apartment because they smoke," said Francois Saillant, head of Front d'action populaire en reamenagement urbain, a prominent local tenants' rights group.

Quebec's landlord association says some of its members have suddenly become interested in inserting no-smoking clauses into their leases.

"I think it's a result of the publicity surrounding the law preventing smoking in restaurants," said Martin Messier, president of the association.

"People are more concerned now about being in a non-smoking environment."

Messier says his association advises its members not to refuse smokers outright, but rather inform them they'll have to puff outside their apartment.

But Saillant claims landlords are taking advantage of the new law to give themselves more power in choosing their tenants.

"It's another restriction that for me is completely not justified," he said, noting especially that Montreal has low vacancy rates.

Bill 112, which was passed in concert with similar anti-smoking legislation in Ontario, forbids smokers from lighting up in bars and restaurants.

The sweeping restrictions also extend to the nine metres in front of any doorway leading to a health or social services institution, college, university or child-care facility.

Saillant believes landlords who discriminate against smokers are setting a disturbing precedent in their interpretation of the law and need to differentiate between public and private spaces.

"It's an extremely dangerous thing to get involved with, because now, quite clearly, we're messing with the private lives of people," he said. "That's not the business of the landlord."

Saillant even raised the possibility of smoking tenants using human rights arguments to challenge the decisions of their landlord.

According to the Quebec government, however, there is nothing in the new legislation that prevents landlords from inserting anti-smoking clauses into their leases.

Messier, for his part, maintains that only a relatively small percentage of landlords have so far insisted on smoke-free dwellings.

He adds that if prospective renters don't like it, they can always find somewhere else to live.

"It's not an intrusion into people's private lives," he said. "It's simply a condition that's prerequisite to the signing of the lease."

Mike Callaghan, who owns an apartment building in the southwest Montreal neighbourhood of St-Henri, admits it's often in the landlord's interests to weed out smokers.

"I would prefer (non-smokers) because it's definitely harder on an apartment when you get, especially, a heavy smoker," he said. "The walls can really take a beating."

But smoking alone isn't enough for Callaghan to turn a potential tenant away.

"I'm more concerned about the person themselves," he said. "Smoking, that's like a little side factor."

Given the wide-ranging nature of Quebec's new smoking bans, even Saillant - himself a lifelong non-smoker - believes smokers deserve a break.

"In an apartment people have their intimacy, it's their private life, and in a way it's the only refuge they have."