This is NSRA/SHAF’s last full length tobacco industry backgrounder document; later this spring the first in a series of tobacco industry bulletins will be published. This document, aimed at policy makers and public health intermediaries, provides an overview of the tobacco industry in Canada and its multi-national parent companies, issues facing the industry in the form of legislation and regulation, and strategies employed by Big Tobacco to address them, such as litigation and appeals. Of particular note is plain and standardized packaging, which was explicitly included in Prime Minister Trudeau’s 2015 mandate letter to the federal Minister of Health. As well, a recent ban on manufacturer payments to retailers and a new minimum size for graphic health warnings on cigarette and little cigar packages in Quebec have set a new bar in Canada for provincial legislation.
