On October 17, 2024, the proposed terms for settlement of longstanding provincial litigation against the tobacco industry were made public. It is probably the worst settlement of tobacco litigation anywhere in the world to date.
All it does is provides one-time money for the provinces to reimburse them for some of the medical costs incurred because of the defendant tobacco companies’ (JTI-Macdonald Corp., Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd) behavior as well as some money for individual plaintiffs. In contrast to other tobacco litigation illustrated by the US Master Settlement Agreement, it releases the companies from future damages without ongoing compensation and does not include any required changes in the companies’ behavior, and does not require release of documents produced in discovery to the public.
The settlement has been roundly condemned by the entire tobacco control community in Canada.
While it is a good thing for these groups to condemn the settlement, they need to go beyond words and mobilize direct pressure on the provincials governments to withdraw from the settlement and, if possible, seek to intervene to urge the court to reject it. Failure to fight this settlement is inconsistent with Canada’s history of strong tobacco control leadership and amounts to a surrender by the tobacco control community in Canada.
Stanton Glantz blog 