Yesterday three separate private meetings were held among the creditors of Canada’s insolvent tobacco companies (BAT-Imperial Tobacco, PMI-Rothmans, Benson and Hedges and JTI-Macdonald). The sole purpose of these meetings was to decide whether the plan of arrangement (settlement) that had been drafted by the mediators in the long-going negotiations was acceptable to the provincial governments and private plaintiffs.
Comments during the October 31 hearing made it no surprise that the plan was approved. Late in the afternoon, the results were confirmed by the Quebec class action and on Saturday the monitors for Rothmans, Benson & Hedges reported that the result for that no one voted against the deal.
The agreement to this settlement by all of the Canadian provinces was quickly panned by health agencies. The groups are disappointed that provincial governments failed to insist on the inclusion of measures aimed at reducing tobacco use or the resulting diseases.
In a joint press release, Action on Smoking & Health, the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada said that provincial governments had thrown the public interest under the bus, and squandered a unique opportunity to change Big Tobacco’s profitable addiction and
disease business model. They called for the provinces to move quickly to counterbalance the flaws in this agreement by introducing new and bold laws to accelerate declines in smoking and prevent addiction to new industry products.
disease business model. They called for the provinces to move quickly to counterbalance the flaws in this agreement by introducing new and bold laws to accelerate declines in smoking and prevent addiction to new industry products.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation raised concerns about the research focus of the cy-pres foundation, which will receive $1 billion from the settlement. Heart and Stroke wants to see the mandate expanded to include prevention and public awareness activities aimed at helping people quit smoking.
The Canadian Cancer Society called for the amendment to be amended before the court reviews it in late January. They want to see ‘smoking-reduction measures and the release of confidential industry documents, similar to what was achieved in the United States decades ago.’