Opening Kinev's Smoking Suit – Is There Fire Where There's Smoke? – Winnipeg Free Press

Opinion

Last weekend, Premier Wab Kinew welcomed delegates to the NDP's annual general meeting with some very good news.

Kineu wowed more than 1,000 delegates in his keynote speech when he said Manitoba will receive $500 million in settlements next year against tobacco companies.

Kinew said the money, which he described as the first installment in an overall settlement that could reach several billion dollars, will be used to improve cancer care in the province and build a new CancerCare facility.

It was a surprising announcement, but was it true?

All 10 provinces are involved in one way or another in the lawsuits against Imperial Tobacco Canada, Rothmans Benson & Hedges and JTI-Macdonald. However, recent news of legal disputes – some dating back weeks – have consistently indicated that a deal is not imminent.

Kinew's announcement that Manitoba had reached or was close to reaching a settlement surprised most observers of the Canadian class action process.

“We're a bit of a mystery,” said Neil Collishaw, director of research at Physicians for a Tobacco-Free Canada, an advocacy group that closely monitors legal negotiations between Big Tobacco and the provinces. “We don't know what to make of Wab Kinew's comments. Does he suggest that there may be a deal in the future? Does he know he made a deal? It's unclear.”

Collishaw noted that negotiations between the provinces and tobacco companies have been shrouded in secrecy, making it very difficult to track any progress on regulation.

Joshua Knelman is a Canadian journalist and author Firebrand: Tobacco Lawyer Jourhe said he was surprised to hear Kinew describe the exact figure and that the first payment could be made within the next year.

“This is the first time I've heard of anything that can be done at the provincial level,” said Knelman, who has been involved in group mediation for years. “If they do come to some kind of agreement, I would expect there to be a group announcement.”

A spokeswoman for Premier said on Monday, based on her insider knowledge, Kinnew's comments only referred to reasonable expectations from the class action process.

If Kinev's comments are a glimpse behind the curtain of secretive negotiations and perhaps a precursor to a final and comprehensive settlement, it could be the end of what has been decades in the making.

The first attempts to sue Big Tobacco in Canada lasted until the late 1980s, but prospects for a definitive settlement improved in 2005 when two separate class actions were certified in Quebec.

In 2015, the Quebec Supreme Court awarded more than $15 billion to the plaintiffs, and the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld the decision in 2019.

The other nine provinces, including Manitoba, have filed lawsuits. The three tobacco companies, which face combined liabilities of $500 billion or more, sought and received protection from creditors in 2019 and began settlement negotiations with all provinces and territories.

Citing progress in those negotiations, tobacco companies have filed 12 times to extend creditor protection. The current extension runs through September, and while negotiations continue, none of the other lawsuits can proceed.

Opinion is divided on what happens next.

Although the provinces are willing to cover the costs of health care for smokers, health groups have asked the provinces to introduce new restrictions on advertising and sales to continue to reduce the use of tobacco products. Those organizations, including the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Lung Association and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, last year urged all elected members of provincial legislatures not to focus solely on financial terms during negotiations.

Concerns were also raised about allowing tobacco companies to pay settlements over a long period of time rather than in one lump sum.

Critics say the parent companies of Canadian tobacco's subsidiaries are unable to pay all the amounts upfront. They also pointed out the moral ambiguities of allowing tobacco companies to attract new generations of smokers to generate revenue for the provinces to service the communities.

All of which brings us back to the question of whether Manitoba's premier has put the settlement cart before the class horse.

Why would Kineu risk becoming the first premier to discuss the details of a trial that has been years in the making and shrouded in suffocating secrecy? This question may take months or even years to answer.

In the final analysis, the leak of what would be the largest legal settlement in Canadian history may have been reckless. But that doesn't mean Manitoba's new premier was wrong.

[email protected]

Dan Lett
Appraiser

Born and raised in and around Toronto, Dan Lett came to Winnipeg in 1986, less than a year after graduating from journalism school, with dreams of becoming a newspaper reporter.

Read full bio