After 26 years of court battles, three of the largest tobacco manufacturers of the world propose the payment of some 23.6 billion US dollars to the provinces and territories of Canada, as well as to thousands of smokers for health problems. On Thursday night, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice made public the details of the agreement reached between tobacco companies, plaintiffs’ lawyers and government representatives. The negotiations took about five years.
British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International and Japan Tobacco will disburse this million-dollar figure in exchange for the lawsuits against them presented at the time by smokers and government entities being invalidated. The proposal must have the approval of courts, plaintiffs and creditors of the companies before implementing the payment plan. Bruce W. Johnston, one of the lawyers leading the first lawsuit brought by smokers in the province of Quebec, said in a statement: “When we began working on the case in 1998, not a single person in history had received a cent compensation from the tobacco industry. Now, tens of thousands of people are going to be compensated.”
Of the US$23.6 billion proposed by the tobacco companies, some US$18 billion will be shared between provincial and territorial governments. 4.7 billion will be allocated directly to smokers affected by various diseases (such as lung cancer and emphysema) or to their families. 65% of these individual payments will go to victims in the province of Quebec contemplated in the first demands. The rest of the money proposed by the companies will go towards the creation of a foundation focused on preventing diseases related to smoking.
In 2015, a court had ruled in favor of the signatories of the lawsuits, grouped together in a single appeal three years ago, holding that the companies “did not sufficiently inform the health risk of tobacco.” The fine on that occasion was around 15 billion Canadian dollars (about 10.8 billion US dollars). However, the tobacco companies asked to enter bankruptcy protection to avoid this payment; a measure that was accepted by a judge in 2019.
At a press conference in Montreal this Friday, Martin Blais stated regarding the companies’ proposal: “This will not bring my father back, but it gives us a little justice, it is a balm on our wounds.” Jean-Yves Blais, who died in 2012 from lung cancer, was one of the leaders of the first lawsuit filed in 1998.
After the announcement of the elements of the proposal, the tobacco companies stated that they were satisfied with this step to resolve the various disputes. In a joint statement, the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control, the organization Smoking and Health and the group Doctors for a Smoke-Free Canada noted that compensation for victims represents “the only positive component of this agreement,” stressing that the document It does not offer a plan to follow to prevent these companies from continuing to cause harm by attracting new consumers, “including through new and tempting nicotine gadgets.”
