Ontario gets OK for $50B tobacco lawsuit

The Ontario government has been given the green light to move ahead with a $50-billion lawsuit against a group of major tobacco companies.

This week, Ontario Superior Justice Barbara Conway dismissed an application by seven foreign companies that argued the court has no jurisdiction over them.

The companies had asked the court to remove them from the lawsuit because they are owned by international firms.

“This decision narrows the funnel through which the industry is going to continue to try to slow down and block the lawsuit . . . by legal manoeuvres,” Michael Perley, director of Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco said Friday.

The group believes the companies will try to avoid having this case go to trial, where their finances, marketing practices and industry secrets will be placed under scrutiny.

“They will fight tooth and nail to prevent a trial from going forward,” Perley said. “But this sends a message that the provinces should be going after that. There is evidence that these costs should be recouped and that the industry has behaved the way it’s alleged to have behaved.”

In September 2009, Ontario launched the multibilliondollar lawsuit against 14 to- bacco companies in an effort to retrieve health-care costs related to smoking.

The lawsuit alleges that since 1955, tobacco companies have been liable for these costs because they knew about the addictiveness and associated health risks of cigarettes.

It also claimed the companies misrepresented the risks, did not take steps to reduce them and marketed cigarettes to children and teens.

None of these allegations have been proven in court.

The Ontario government says smoking costs health care $1.6 billion a year.

“We will continue to vigorously pursue this litigation,” vowed Ontario Attorney General John Gerretsen in a statement Friday.