ABSTRACT
How does law sense those who do not ‘belong’ in their own homes? Specifi - cally, how does a sense of smell allow legal decision makers to identify abject tenants and then legitimate eviction orders against them? How does the process of ‘sniffi ng out’ these tenants reify normative ideals of ‘home’ and idealized, inodourate citizens? Is eviction a legal consequence through which these tenants sense law being forcibly inscribed upon their bodies and their lives? These questions animate my critical reading of several decisions of Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board that order the eviction of tenants because of smells associated with their bodies and living activities. The tenants who are the subjects of the decisions were all marginalized members of society, struggling with mental or physical disabilities, poverty and lack of social supports. Drawing on critical theories about odours and olfaction, I develop a conception of ‘law’s sense of smell’ in the context of residential tenancies hearings. I argue that this sense of smell functions to maintain certain power relations and to discipline and shame the bodies and activities of marginalized tenants.
