admin, Author at Non-Smokers’ Rights Association

Entries by admin

Imperial Tobacco, Imasco, and the Smuggling of Cigarettes into Canada

Introduction On Dec. 21st, 1999, the Canadian federal government announced that it had filed a civil suit, under the United States Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute, against Canada’s No. 3 cigarette company, RJR-Macdonald (now JTI-Macdonald), the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers’ Council (CTMC), the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and various related companies. This suit stems from allegations...

EU launches lawsuit against Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds

The European Union has filed a civil suit against two large U.S.-based tobacco companies, Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, alleging the tobacco industry was involved in smuggling cigarettes into the EU. Like the Canadian suit against R.J. Reynolds (and others), filed in December 1999, the EU suit is being made under the Racketeering Influenced and...

Federal government hits speedbump in lawsuit on smuggling

As widely reported in the media today, a U.S. district court judge has ruled in the tobacco industry’s favour and thrown out a Canadian government lawsuit with respect to an alleged conspiracy to smuggle cigarettes into Canada in the 1990s. But contrary to what some commentators have suggested, the June 30th ruling by Judge Thomas J. McAvoy...

The Tobacco Industry and Youth Smoking

A brief to the Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources Presented by Francis Thompson Policy Analyst June 8th, 2000 One of the important aspects of Bill S-20 is that it puts the tobacco industry’s publicly stated position on youth smoking to the test. As you all know, the industry has consistently claimed that it is...

Surveying the Damage

On Oct. 25th, a coalition of health groups released a report on the effects of the 1994 tobacco tax rollback, which saw cigarette prices cut in half in much of the country. The four groups (Canadian Cancer Society, Non-Smokers’ Rights Association, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada and the Québec Coalition for Tobacco Control) held...

Tobacco insider talks: major firms were deeply involved in cross-border smuggling, former executive says

Feb. 24, 1999, was not a banner day for Les Thompson. Arrested by U.S. Customs agents in the Ontario city of Windsor, cuffed and thrown into jail, the RJR-Macdonald sales executive suddenly became the slick, hard-driving, unscrupulous face of big tobacco. U.S. prosecutors claimed they had nabbed the man behind a billion-dollar tobacco-smuggling network that...

Recovering tobacco-caused public expenditures from the tobacco industry: options for provincial governments

RECOVERING TOBACCO-CAUSED PUBLIC EXPENDITURES FROM THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY: Options for Provincial Governments Eric LeGresley, Legal Counsel Smoking and Health Action Foundation March, 1998 RATIONALE FOR COST RECOVERY Cost recovery is about fairness. Government of Canada studies calculate tobacco-caused losses for Canadian society at $15 billion per annum,(1) and combined federal and provincial tobacco taxes at only about $3.5 billion. Quite...

Legislation: A Key Component of a Comprehensive Tobacco Control Strategy

A plenary address to the 10th World Conference on Smoking or Health by Garfield Mahood I. BACKGROUND Thank you. Chairpersons, fellow speakers, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen (Slide 1). Thank you for the invitation to address this plenary session and the honour that this bestows. I have been asked to address the conference on legislation as a...

Government action on tobacco’s costs (1997)

GOVERNMENT ACTION ON TOBACCO’S COSTS David Sweanor, Senior Legal Counsel, Smoking and Health Action Foundation, July 1997. There is considerable interest among Canadian governments in looking at ways to force tobacco companies to cover some of the costs associated with their products. British Columbia has already publicly announced its initial steps in this process and other...