CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST ONTARIO AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS FOR TOBACCO DENORMALIZATION

We interrupt our Summer break once again to bring to you this important invitation from the New Tobacco Alliance Committee to join them in suing the Ontario and federal governments if you have been financially damaged because of anti-tobacco policy.

Excerpts from: Injured parties invited to join lawsuit

Individuals and businesses that have suffered financially due to government policies on tobacco have been invited to join a lawsuit.

Lawyers for the New Tobacco Alliance Committee filed a claim for $500-million against the Province of Ontario and the federal government in late June. If the matter proceeds to trial, NTAC will seek to have the claim certified as a class action lawsuit. "This lawsuit is based on what happened to us and how it happened to us," NTAC spokesperson John Van Daele, of Courtland, said yesterday. "We want the message out there that we're opening the door. How do you make your case stronger? There is strength in numbers. We know an injustice has been done and we're not prepared to let it go.

" McKenzie Lake Lawyers of London is representing NTAC. The firm has advised NTAC to cast its net as wide as possible. NTAC imposed a deadline to join the group last year. However, now that there is a possibility the suit will become a class action, the door has been opened to other tobacco farmers, convenience store operators, tobacco manufacturers and anyone else who has an argument for redress.

In a note to its members, NTAC blames government policies for undermining the legal market for tobacco with taxation policies that have fostered a black market. "Our governments have, over the last decade, tried to tax cigarettes out of the market," NTAC says. "The predictable result is that, instead, this has created a black market which delivers cigarettes to Canadians at a third the price of legal cigarettes.

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