MONTREAL, Oct. 17, 2024 /CNW/ - Action on Smoking & Health, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada and the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control say they are both appalled and deeply disappointed with the resolution of the provincial lawsuits against the tobacco industry. See a preliminary analysis of the proposed agreement here.

This is their joint statement:

"Apart from the compensation to victims or their descendants in Québec and in the rest of Canada, which is the only positive component of this deal, there is little public health benefit to be found in this arrangement. The settlement provides no roadmap aimed at preventing these very same companies from causing more damage by recruiting new victims, including through new enticing nicotine gadgets.

The cycle of addiction and harm will continue

Despite the tobacco industry having its back against the wall, the provinces choose to negotiate themselves a cash windfall without bothering to change the corporate behaviour at the core of the lawsuits. Provinces have deliberately agreed to allow Big Tobacco to maintain its business model extracting profits from addiction and harm in perpetuity. They have shamelessly turned a blind eye to the damage these very same companies will inflict on future generations.

How is it possible that governments would allow companies that have knowingly caused the premature death and suffering of countless Canadians and an extensive burden to the healthcare system, to walk away from a historical class action loss and, under the supervision of the courts, maintain their for-profit status with no substantial change to their business in the long run?

Short-sighted vision, the smell of money and a lack of provincial leadership, that's how.

The future of the addiction industry is guaranteed

The proposed agreement allows the tobacco industry to pursue its stated goal to shift its business from combustible tobacco to other nicotine products, like electronic cigarettes that also cause addiction and harm to its users." Indeed, the payments made to provinces will only rely on the revenues generated by tobacco products, avoiding any direct impact on the profitability of the industry's e-cigarettes business.

The majority of new vapers are never-smokers, so we are talking of millions of potential profit-generating customers that this rogue industry can exploit for profit. All told, this deal provides no obstacle to the survival and expansion of these addiction-based companies.

Contrary to the public interest

It is clear to us that the provinces have forgotten or simply dismissed their moral responsibility to protect the health and welfare of future generations. They could have insisted on the accelerated phase-out of combustible tobacco. They could have ended all profits for businesses that knowingly harm their customers. Instead, they have sanctioned the tobacco multinational's vision for the future of their business.

What lessons can be drawn from this deal? That companies who knowingly cause death and disease over decades can walk away with a deal that allows them to maintain their business model minus a few years of reduced profits. What a shameful message does this deal send to all the other companies and all the other countries?

Where were the Ministers of Health?

Where were the Health Ministers on this file? Because there's no sign of their fingerprints on this deal. Any competent health minister knows that preventing the onset of disease should be the priority - as it avoids suffering and death, in addition to health care costs. Taxpayers already pay for a health care system focussed on treating diseases, and using litigation receive money to pay for treatments does not prevent new sick patients.

A foundationⁱ to fund 'projects, programs and initiatives with a rational link to tobacco-related diseases' is essentially cleaning up the mess that the deal will allow industry to continue to make."

A version of this release will be updated as more details become available.
Please refresh the same link to get subsequent versions on Friday October 18^th:
https://cqct.qc.ca/Communiques_docs/2024/PRSS_24_10_17_Agreement_TobaccoIndustry_CCAA.pdf 

SOURCE Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control