Three major tobacco companies are seeking to extend a court order that has suspended legal proceedings against them as they continue negotiations on a settlement with creditors in a high-profile case. The case involves an order for the companies to pay billions to over 100,000 smokers and their families.<\/p>\n
The companies \u2014 JTI-Macdonald Corp.<\/strong>, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges<\/strong>, and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd.<\/strong> \u2014 have filed documents in an Ontario court requesting an extension of the stay on legal actions until March 2025. The request was initially scheduled for a hearing on Tuesday but has been postponed to October 31, with the current stay extended until then. The previous order was set to expire today.<\/p>\n The legal suspension was first granted in 2019, following the companies’ loss of an appeal in a landmark Quebec lawsuit. The stay is intended to preserve the status quo while the tobacco companies negotiate a comprehensive settlement with class-action members and other creditors, including provincial governments seeking compensation for healthcare costs related to smoking.<\/p>\n The stay, initially meant to last only a few months, has now been renewed more than a dozen times. Settlement negotiations have remained confidential throughout the process, which has been ongoing for more than five years.<\/p>\n Several health advocacy groups have raised concerns over the delays and lack of transparency, arguing that Canada risks missing a significant opportunity to enforce stronger regulations and smoking reduction initiatives. Some critics further contend that the creditor protection process in this case prioritizes industry viability over public health.<\/p>\n The tobacco companies sought creditor protection in Ontario after Quebec’s Court of Appeal ordered them to pay over $15 billion to approximately 100,000 Quebecers involved in two class-action lawsuits. The cases represented individuals who started smoking between 1950 and 1998 and either developed health issues or became addicted, as well as their heirs.<\/p>\n Court documents from last year indicate that hundreds of class-action members have passed away since the creditor protection process began.<\/p>\n Source: Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tobacco Giants Seek Extension on Legal Proceedings: Settlement Talks with 100,000 Smokers at Stake Three major…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":9337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[383,371],"tags":[5035,5034,5030,5025,5027,5024,5022,457,5032,3669,418,5028,5026,5033,5023,5021,5029,5031,5020],"class_list":["post-9335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-health","tag-and-imperial-tobacco-canada-ltd","tag-benson-hedges","tag-canadian-tobacco-industry","tag-class-action-lawsuit","tag-creditor-protection","tag-imperial-tobacco-canada","tag-jti-macdonald-corp","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-macdonald-corp","tag-ola","tag-ontario-court","tag-public-health-concerns","tag-quebec-smoking-case","tag-rothmans","tag-rothmans-benson-hedges","tag-settlement-negotiations","tag-smoking-regulations","tag-smoking-related-health-care-costs","tag-tobacco-companies"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bpmcdn.com\/f\/files\/saanich\/import\/2019-04\/16294301_web1_Cigarettes.jpg;w=1200;h=800;mode=crop","fifu_image_alt":"Tobacco Giants Seek Extension on Legal Proceedings: Settlement Talks with 100,000 Smokers at Stake","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}