Calls for major changes to landmark tobacco settlement too late: Imperial Tobacco

By Canadian Press on January 30, 2025.

TORONTO — Imperial Tobacco is rejecting what it says are major changes to a landmark $32.5-billion settlement that would see it and two other tobacco companies compensate provinces, territories and ex-smokers in Canada.

A lawyer for Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. told an Ontario Superior Court hearing today that changes being suggested to the settlement by one of the other firms has come too late.

Deborah Glendinning says a proposal by Rothmans, Benson & Hedges to fundamentally change how the funding for the global settlement is allocated is unacceptable.

The proposed deal was crafted over more than five years by the monitors appointed to each company — JTI-Macdonald Corp., Imperial Tobacco Canada, and RBH — along with a court-appointed mediator.

Creditors approved each of three plans — one drafted for each company — last year, and lawyers representing the monitors suggested this week they be accepted.

The companies faced claims totalling more than $1 trillion, including from lawsuits from provincial governments seeking to recover smoking-related health-care costs.

The deal is a pan-Canadian settlement of all outstanding tobacco litigation in the country.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 30, 2025.

The Canadian Press