A Toronto couple who perform as the horror-comedy act Creepy Boys say they are being wrongly evicted from their apartment after their landlord accused them of smoking indoors — an allegation they say is actually explained by flatulence, not cigarettes.
SE Grummett and Sam Kruger, who run an interactive “queer theatre” show under that stage name, are contesting the eviction before Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board, according to the International Business Times.
The dispute began after their landlord, who has a chronic lung condition, noticed elevated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) picked up by an air-quality monitor in her upstairs unit, which shares an air duct with the couple’s apartment. She attributed the readings to indoor smoking, which the tenants deny.
Grummett and Kruger say they methodically ruled out appliances and home fragrances as the source of the VOCs. They say a health specialist corroborated information from the monitor’s manufacturer indicating that VOC levels can spike in response to bodily functions — and that the readings in question rise overnight, a pattern they argue points to flatulence rather than smoke.
“This is not a joke. We wish we were joking,” the couple wrote on a fundraising page set up to cover legal costs.
According to the fundraiser, once the smoking theory was challenged, the landlord moved to evict the pair for “personal use” of the unit — a category under Ontario law that allows a landlord to reclaim a rental for their own occupancy or a family member’s. Grummett and Kruger argue that justification is pretextual.
“We are currently being evicted for ‘personal use’ but we believe this is retribution for us enforcing our tenants rights, as well as, our landlords belief that the poor air quality readings in her unit are from us smoking,” the couple wrote. “We believe this to be in bad faith. In Ontario, such evictions have to be heard by the Landlord Tenant Board. So, we are going to court.”
Ontario law requires contested evictions to go before the Landlord and Tenant Board, where tenants can challenge a landlord’s stated grounds. The couple’s case will test whether the board finds the “personal use” claim credible or sides with their argument that it masks a retaliatory motive.
As of Sunday morning, about $2,400 had been raised toward the couple’s legal expenses, a month after the fundraising campaign went live. Creepy Boys did not respond to a request for comment.
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