Music from the Middle East fills the West Georgia Street café as Swedish tourists Ann and Jesper Smidts sit down and decide what to order.
They pick the orange shisha, and Ahwaz Hookah House owner Abbas Abdiannia brings over a 15-gram piece of the herbal mix, puts it into the top of a hookah pipe and then lights it up.
The couple take turns puffing on the mix of herbs, fruit and molasses – which costs $15 – and comment on how they are enjoying their trip to Vancouver.
“This tastes really nice,” said Ann. “Why not? It is not tobacco.”
Abdiannia is joined by Abdolhamid Mohammadian, owner of the Persia’s Smoke House on Davie Street near Granville.
The two hookah parlour owners are meeting to go over legal matters and say they are in the fight of their lives with the City of Vancouver to save their businesses.
The owners believe the city is unfairly targeting them with a no-smoking bylaw that fails to consider their cultural heritage when it comes to smoking a hookah pipe.
Mohammadian and Abdiannia in 2009 were given tickets for the hookah use at their businesses under the City of Vancouver’s no-smoking bylaw.
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The two have vowed to fight the tickets to the bitter end. They are due to appear in B.C. Provincial Court in November to present their argument that the city bylaw is a violation of their constitutional right to religious and cultural freedom.
Mohammadian makes it very clear they do not serve tobacco products. He says a similar hookah operation in Burnaby operates without the threat of closure.
“This is herbal, this is not tar, this is not tobacco, this is not nicotine. Nobody has ever complained about our businesses. Everybody is happy except city hall.”
Mohammadian, 65-year, said the business has operated for 13 years and he’s prepared to do whatever it takes to remain open.
Abdiannia says that when the city brought in a no-smoking bylaw in 2008, he made sure all the products they served were tobacco-free. “It is part of our culture, it is the only way we can socialize,” he said.
“People are not coming here to get drunk,” he adds.
Hookah is the name of a large water pipe that originated in India, but gained popularity in the Middle East, mainly in Turkey and Iran.
Shisha is the name of the mixture that is smoked in the water pipe. Shisha comes in several flavours, with fruit flavours being the most popular.
Smoking the hookah as a social activity is gaining popularity all over the world, especially among young people. A typical hookah session lasts about 45 minutes and a hookah can be shared by one or several people using individual mouth pieces.
Dean Davison, the lawyer representing the two hookah lounge owners said his clients are fighting to save their businesses.
“If this goes through, they are done,” said Davison.
The City of Vancouver will not discuss the upcoming case because it is before the courts, said spokeswoman Wendy Stewart.
The city confirmed that Persia’s Smoke Shop was charged with allowing smoking in a business, contrary to the City’s health bylaw. The official date of the offence was May 21, 2009.
Davison says there is no evidence to support claims of harmful second-hand smoke from herbal products being smoked at the hookah lounges.
“It is our contention that the city amended health Bylaw No. 9535 is unreasonably oppressive and unfairly discriminates against our clients’ legitimate business rights as Canadian citizens,” Davidson wrote to the city.
“In addition, the bylaw unfairly discriminates against their and their clientele’s constitutional right to freedom of religion and cultural diversity all without reasonable justification.”
Fines under the city’s no-smoking bylaw start at $250 and can go up to $2,000.
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