Big Tobacco used lobby groups: leaked doc
Across Ontario and Quebec, city and town councils passed a wave of similar resolutions, urging provincial governments to crack down on the scourge of contraband tobacco.
It was no coincidence: the municipalities had all been lobbied by convenience-store and anti-contraband associations.
The same, seemingly independent groups have also called for a freeze on legal tobacco taxes, opposed bans on menthol cigarettes and, today, are fighting the federal government’s plan to require plain packaging for smoking products.
But a leaked Imperial Tobacco document suggests that 2012 lobbying campaign was no grassroots movement, and that the retail and contraband organizations have for years been used as surrogates by the cigarette giant to promote its own interests.
The internal PowerPoint presentation describes deploying the convenience-store groups and the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco — both at least partly funded by the tobacco industry — to promote fears about contraband, push for action against it and keep taxes down on legal ones.
The document focuses at length on what it calls Project M&M: “Mobilizing municipalities to pressure for Big Government action.”
It then refers to cases where the convenience-store associations or anti-contraband group garnered media coverage and convinced dozens of local councils to pass those resolutions.
One slide in the August 2012 presentation suggests Imperial’s tactics worked, noting there had been no increases in tobacco taxes since 2008.
“Our campaigns have delivered some success.”
The document — a presentation made to parent company British American Tobacco — was leaked to a public-health researcher by a company “whistleblower,” said Melodie Tilson of the Non-Smokers’ Rights Association.
“This presentation makes it really clear,” she said.
“They are orchestrating various organizations and using them basically as their puppets.”
Groups like the convenience stores mislead the public and elected officials when they fail to make clear their close ties to Big Tobacco, said Tilson.
There is other evidence of the groups’ close links to the industry, including at least three former tobacco-company executives who are now leaders in the Ontario, Quebec and national conveniencestore associations.
The CEO of the Ontario group, David Bryans, even appears to have filled both roles simultaneously.
A man by the same name was director of domestic sales for what is now JTI-MacDonald in the 1990s — according to an internal organizational chart filed in a Quebec lawsuit — and as recently as 2012 was described in court testimony as a corporate-affairs representative for that firm.
He has led either the Ontario or Canadian convenience-store trade groups since well before then — 2003.
But the current president of the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, Satinder Chera, denied his group acts at the behest of the tobacco industry.
Cigarette companies are among 60 national firms who are part of the association, representing the stores’ major suppliers from softdrink makers to oil companies, he said.
The association lobbies on a “slew” of issues, and makes no apologies for opposing contraband, said Chera.
Still — like colleagues from his and the other groups at various legislative committee hearings — he refused to disclose what proportion of the association’s funding comes from the tobacco industry.
Jeffrey Guiler, an Imperial Tobacco spokesman, said in a statement that the company works with a variety of groups on a “multitude of issues,” including contraband.
“This criminal activity harms honest small-business owners. They care about their business and we work with their umbrella groups to advocate for their best interests.”
The National Coalition did not respond directly to the suggestion it is part of Imperial’s lobbying campaigns, but noted in a statement that its 18 member organizations have convinced governments to act against “this growing (contraband) threat.”
The Imperial Tobacco presentation lists the company, the convenience-store groups and contraband coalition side by side as conducting various campaigns for years to oppose illegal cigarettes and to “freeze taxes.”
Then it asks “how to keep the pressure on” and answers by describing the 2012 Project M&M campaign involving the same players, but leaning on Quebec politicians during an election year and on municipalities in two provinces.
Through such “front groups,” the tobacco company essentially coopted politicians and other “innocents,” charged Cynthia Callard of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.
“If I was a councillor in any of those municipalities that had passed a resolution in good faith,” she said, “I would feel used.”
Police are encouraging parents to check their children’s candy on Halloween with special attention given to any packaging that appears to have been tampered with.
There were a number of incidents of candy tampering reported in Niagara last Halloween.
In Thorold, a child found a razor blade inside a chocolate bar. In another case, police say a razor blade was found in another bar. Both children had gone trick-or-treating in the St. Catharines area.
Also in Niagara, a 15-year-old girl in Fort Erie told police she had found a small razor blade in a bite-size chocolate bar.
In all cases, there were no injuries.
Niagara Regional Police investigated the incidents, but no arrests have been made.
With Halloween just around the corner, police are reminding parents to stay vigilant and to thoroughly inspect all candies before eating them.
“The biggest part of this is vigilance on the part of the parents to ensure they check the candy thoroughly before allowing their kids to consume any of it,” said NRP Const. Phil Gavin.
“Ensure the packaging is air tight and hasn’t been tampered with.”
Niagara Emergency Medical Services also urges parents to inspect the candy, and also take additional steps to ensure a safe Halloween.
“As eager as we all are to get to have those Halloween treats, make sure a parent checks them first,” said Mayram Traub, community education and awareness advisor for Niagara EMS.
Niagara EMS safety tips include: the mouth and eye holes are large enough so not to interfere with sight or breathing
If a parent finds anything suspicious after inspecting their child’s candy stash, they can call police at 905-688-4111.