MARIJUANA OR BOOZE? RESTAURANT MUST DECIDE

Eatery's liquor licence in jeopardy after toker wins rights decision

Ted Kindos faces two choices: Continue to be called a bigot or break the
law. Either way, he risks going bankrupt.

Kindos owns Gator Ted's Tap & Grill in Burlington. Four years ago, he
asked a marijuana smoker to step away from his front door.

The medically licensed toker complained to the Ontario Human Rights
Commission of bias against a disabled person. He won.

Kindos was about to pay the fine and post obligatory signs saying, "We
accommodate medicinal marijuana smokers," when a different government
agency told him he could lose his liquor licence. Serving anybody
possessing a controlled substance - prescribed or not - is against the
law.

"Heads I win, tails you lose," Kindos said yesterday. The Ontario Human
Rights Tribunal will hear the case this summer.

"People didn't like the way I smell," the smoker, Steve Gibson,
acknowledged of one complaint against him from fellow patrons.

"But I don't like a lot of smells either. I can't bear to stand near some
chicks, they've got so much perfume on."

Gibson suffered a neck injury in a 1989 workplace accident, collects a
disability pension and is one of 3,000 people in Canada authorized to use
marijuana to control pain.

When Kindos asked him not to light up inside, Gibson stood smack outside
the front door where families pass in and out. Regular smokers stand
there, too, he says.

"I don't care if you're eating a banana outside my front door - if you're
blocking my entrance I'm asking you to leave," Kindos says.

After spending $40,000 to fight the rights complaint - the government
covered Gibson's costs - Kindos announced last May he would settle. But on
seeing the offer, he changed his mind. He was ordered to pay Gibson $2,000
for pain and suffering, train staff in the human rights code, educate the
public about the code, and post the signs.

Discovering he could lose his licence proved the last straw.

Kindos must continue to fight the complaint or lose his business, he says.
Legal bills could also bankrupt him but a lawyer has agreed to take the
next stage without charge.