Over the past few decades, tobacco companies have tapped deep into their marketing toolkit to manipulate and deceive the public about their products. They have influenced perceptions through celebrity spokespersons, youth-directed advertising and public relations campaigns openly denying the adverse health effects of their products, biased research and word-of-mouth. misleading keys such as “light” and “soft”. Using pharaonic financial means, they constructed a false reality, covering up the legitimate evidence that confirmed the catastrophic health effects of smoking. They created a society of people addicted to their products and opened a path for them that led straight to illness and death. And they did it all over the world.
Reading these lines, you may think we are exaggerating. Absolutely not. In fact, all Canadian provinces have acknowledged these wrongdoings and have filed lawsuits against the country’s three major tobacco companies, Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., Rothmans, Benson Hedges Inc. and JTI-MacDonald Corporation and their international parent companies. The lawsuits and class action filed in Quebec have caused these companies to file for bankruptcy protection, due to claims exceeding $500 billion. You read that right: 500 billion.
The only way for these companies to end this bankruptcy protection is to enter into a settlement that the provinces agree to. Currently, the provinces are engaged in these historic negotiations with the three tobacco companies, and the talks have been going on for four years. What’s happening at the negotiating table? We don’t know, since these discussions are taking place behind closed doors. Our health organizations, for example, are excluded.
Settlement negotiations are a unique opportunity to hold tobacco companies accountable. The hour of truth has come for these companies; let’s not let this chance slip away.
The provinces have a lot of leeway and can insist that strict measures be adopted in order to change the behavior of the industry forever. The Canadian Cancer Society, the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Lung Association are urging premiers and provincial government negotiators to ensure that nothing is the same for the big manufacturers of tobacco. We believe that the future settlement must include substantial and long-term financial compensation for tobacco control, in addition to political measures to regulate the industry and reduce tobacco consumption. The wrongdoings of the industry must stop.
Specifically, we require that at least 10% of the proceeds from the settlement be allocated to an independent entity to carry out tobacco reduction initiatives. If Canada’s tobacco reduction targets are not met, tobacco companies will have to pay large additional sums. We also specifically call for other measures, including a ban on all promotion of tobacco products and the disclosure of the millions of pages of secret internal tobacco company documents.
We are not the first country to take action to hold the tobacco industry accountable for its actions. Settlements were reached in the United States in 1997-98, with new measures applied to the industry in that country. It’s very simple: if US states can include measures to reduce smoking in their regulations, Canadian provinces can, and must, do better in 2023.
Our organizations are not the only ones to have a strong opinion on the matter. In fact, according to an Ipsos poll conducted in March 2023, 85% of Quebecers support a significant portion of settlement funds being used for initiatives aimed at reducing adult and youth smoking.
Tobacco products remain the leading preventable cause of illness and death in every province in Canada, killing 13,000 Quebecers each year, impacting families, communities and our health systems.
We urge First Ministers to show leadership in arresting big tobacco companies, challenging their actions, and ensuring that comprehensive measures are included in the settlement of these lawsuits, on behalf of future generations.