Five years after historic tobacco ruling, 'nothing has changed'

TORONTO — In the span of a few short years, Jean-Luc Duval lost two of the most important people in his life to lung cancer.

Duval joined a lengthy legal battle against three major tobacco companies, and in a historic ruling in 2019, Quebec’s highest court confirmed he and roughly 100,000 other Quebecers were entitled to billions in compensation for the harm they or their loved ones had experienced. Several health advocacy groups have also sounded the alarm about the lack of movement and transparency in the case, warning Canada could miss out on what they call a historic opportunity to reduce tobacco use and regulate the industry.

The province's Appeal Court then upheld the landmark decision, prompting the companies to seek creditor protection in Ontario. That protection also suspended legal proceedings against them, which includes lawsuits filed by provincial governments to recoup health-care costs related to smoking. In court filings last September, however, one of the lawyers for the class action members said a settlement was"not currently in sight," alluding to"recent setbacks" and suggesting mediation had been"severely undermined" by participants who had changed their earlier positions.

By nature, the process centres on industry viability, sidelining the public health and justice elements of the case, she said. It essentially allows the companies to continue operating as usual as they restructure – and get more people addicted in the process, she said. A spokesperson for Quebec's health ministry said only that the province wants compensation for expenses incurred since the implementation of its health insurance program, as well as those expected until 2030.

“It does look like it's primarily financial and it's based on instalments,” she said, which means “having future and current victims use products to compensate past victims and provinces.” These include: putting at least 10 per cent of the money received in a fund to reduce tobacco use; banning all remaining tobacco promotion; requiring the companies to make extra payments if tobacco-reduction targets aren't met; and publicly disclosing millions of pages of internal company documents.

Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)

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