$15B award to smokers put on hold

MONTREAL• The Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health said Monday smokers who won a recent court victory are being denied justice after an Ontario judge granted cigarette maker JTIMacdonald Corp. protection from its creditors last week.

Jti-macdonald was among three companies that lost in the Quebec Court of Appeal March 1. The court upheld a landmark judgment ordering them to pay billions of dollars in damages to Quebec smokers. Now that Jti-macdonald is under creditor protection, however, the firm will not have to disperse any funds to tobacco victims for now.

The Ontario Superior Court decision suspends legal proceedings against all three companies until Apr. 5, even though only Jti-macdonald sought protection. Benson & Hedges and Imperial Tobacco made no such request.

The Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health led two class-actions against the companies and won in 2015, when Quebec Superior Court Justice Brian Riordan ordered the companies to make payments of more than $15 billion to smokers who either fell ill or were addicted. At the time, the ruling was believed to be the biggest class-action award in Canadian history.

Philippe Trudel, one of the lawyers representing tobacco victims in the classaction, called the Ontario court’s decision to suspend proceedings against all three firms “unusual.” Mario Bujold, spokesman for the Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health, said the Ontario court’s ruling can be extended beyond Apr. 5 and he worries victims will never see any money.

“Companies are very good at finding strategies to avoid paying damages they were ordered to pay,” Bujold said.