The Road to Prohibition? Landlord Bans Smoking in Rentals.
September 20th, 2006 | by MadHacktress |Winnipegonians - er, people who live in Winnipeg - will have one less landlord from whom to seek tenantry as of October 1. At least if they smoke. Or if their family smokes, or friends, or the guy who repairs the TV set.
Globe General Agencies manages about 5000 units in the city and these units will no longer be smoke-friendly environments for new tenants as of 10/01/06. Existing tenants and their units will remain unaffected by this policy change.
Now I’ve never been a smoker. In fact I’ve never even experimented with a single cigarette. But I think that this is just wrong.
This is the kind of infringement on people’s rights that makes my head damn near want to explode. I see this as a gateway to car leasers putting a no-smoking stipulation on their contracts. If they smell smoke in the car at the end of the lease - you bought it sweetheart.
Or, hey, why not ban people from drinking in their own homes? That makes sense, too, right? After all, we’re looking at things that the government restricts anyhow and that also have potential health benefits, right? So, why not take it to the next logical step. I bet more damage is done to apartments and common areas of buildings in the name of drinking than in the name of smoking.
That pee smell in the hallway isn’t ’cause your neighbour down the hall has a friend who smokes a pack a day!
And one person who The Canadian Press interviewed stated that the caretaker smokes in the building, too, so this will help out. Well, that dude shouldn’t have been smoking anyhow - the hallways are a workplace for him. Not to mention that no one should be smoking in public places - hallways, in apartment buildings, are public places.
No, this is a Very Bad Idea. These kinds of policies let people’s rights and freedoms get infringed upon far too much. I hope that the policy gets challenged and, eventually, overturned. People’s own homes need to be protected from infringments on their rights. Smoking, while disgusting and unhealthy, is the right of any consenting adult - that is the law.
I am against the no-pets policy as well.
Entry Filed under: General, In The News, Pure Opinion
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I’m confused. Are they banning people who smoke from renting, or just banning smoking inside the apartment? The latter I support - an apartment is shared air, even inside one’s unit, and smoking really makes the environment horrible for non-smokers and people with diseases like emphysema and COPD.
Any unit rented as of and after October 1 is a smoke-free unit. All tenants, visitors and otherwise will have to be smoke-free.