Creditors approve proposed $32.5B deal with tobacco giants today: spokespeople
By The Canadian Press on December 12, 2024.
A smoker puts out a cigarette in a public ash tray in Ottawa on May 31, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean KilpatrickSpokespeople for a group of creditors that voted on a proposed $32.5-billion settlement with three tobacco giants say the deal passed a major hurdle today.
The proposed global settlement between the companies – JTI-Macdonald Corp., Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. – and their creditors was announced in October after more than five years of negotiations.
Representatives for the creditors, which include provincial governments seeking to recover smoking-related health-care costs as well as plaintiffs in two Quebec class-action lawsuits, voted on the plan in a virtual meeting this afternoon.
Spokespeople for some of the Quebec plaintiffs say the creditors overwhelmingly supported the proposal, which they say represents a “pivotal milestone” in a legal saga that has spanned decades.
Before the plan can be implemented, however, it must obtain the approval of the court.
A hearing has been scheduled for the end of January.
“We now eagerly await court approval to bring this long-fought battle for justice and truth to its conclusion,” said Dominique Claveau, executive director of the Québec Council on Tobacco and Health, which is part of the lawsuit.
The proposed deal includes $24 billion for provinces and territories, $4 billion for tens of thousands of Quebec smokers and their heirs, and more than $2.5 billion for smokers in other provinces and territories.
The companies sought creditor protection in Ontario in early 2019 after they lost an appeal in a landmark court battle in Quebec.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2024.
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At one time he government justified the absurd taxes on cigarettes to offset health care costs. Sent all the money to Ukraine to support the bio-labs. Now the tobacco companies are financially responsible for peoples choices? Is Ukraine going to be next ? Pay for all the vax related problems?