Creditor protection challenged

The Ontario Superior Court has agreed to hear a challenge to the creditor protection it granted earlier to JTI-MacDonald, Imperial Tobacco and Rothmans, Benson & Hedges.

In June 2015, the Quebec Superior Court condemned Imperial Tobacco, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and JTI-Macdonald to pay cad15.5 billion ($11.6 billion) in moral and punitive damages to 100,000 victims of lung and throat cancer and emphysema caused by consumption of cigarettes.

On March 1, 2019, the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld the trial judgment, but adjusted the method of calculating accumulated interest on the amount of the conviction, leaving the tobacco companies with a cad13.6 billion bill.

The tobacco companies subsequently requested and received protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.

Among other things, the plaintiffs want to prevent the tobacco companies from transferring their profits abroad.

“Since tobacco companies have been able to pay billions of profits to their parent companies abroad in recent years, they certainly have the capacity to compensate Quebec’s tobacco victims,” said Mario Bujold, strategic advisor to the Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health, which represents smokers and ex-smokers who are sick in this case.