The following letter was sent to the Ministers of Health and Addiction by Action on Smoking & Health, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, and Coalition québécoise sur le contrôle du tabac:

REQUEST THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT VOTE AGAINST THE TOBACCO SETTLEMENT PLAN

Dear Minister Holland and Minister Saks:

We are writing today to request that you take action to ensure that the Government of Canada casts its vote against the proposed settlement plan between Imperial Tobacco and its creditors (“the Plan”).

A meeting to allow Imperial Tobacco’s creditors to vote on the Plan will be held on December 12th, 2024. Because Imperial Tobacco identifies a debt to the Government of Canada of $333,535,110, the Government of Canada will be entitled to cast one vote at that time.

We see no reasons why Canada should vote in support of this proposal and we identify many reasons that you should oppose it.

THE PLAN IS BAD FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

The Plan contains no measures to support the reduction of tobacco use or to improve public health. To the contrary, the Plan is designed to maintain revenues from tobacco sales in order to finance ongoing payments to provinces. It provides for the provinces to receive a percentage of the net revenues from tobacco sales (exclusive of excise and sales taxes) until $20 billion has been received, and forecasts that the companies’ revenues will be maintained at over $1 billion per year. Instead of helping to accelerate declines in commercial tobacco use, this Plan aims to perpetuate it for the foreseeable future.

The Plan does nothing to acknowledge, address or correct the harmful and wrongful actions of the tobacco industry. Quebec courts ruled that Canada’s three largest cigarette manufacturers acted illegally throughout the decades that were the subject of one of Canada’s longest civil tort trials. The companies were found guilty of failing to ensure that consumers were provided with information about the risks associated with their products, of misleading consumers by attacking the health information provided by others, of misleading consumers through their advertising and of violating the rights of Quebecers to life and personal security.

Article from Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada: BAT doubles down on disposable vapes in Canada (while regulators in other countries push back).

Excerpts: "Data from the ITC Project survey of young adults (16 to 19) show that as young people turned to disposable e-cigarettes, the rates of use doubled from 12% to 24%."

"Communities and governments are increasingly concerned about vaping devices contributing to toxic plastic and electronic waste. The plastic casing, the toxins in the e-liquid residue, the lithium batteries and the heavy metals in the circuit boards all pose environmental concerns. As Canadian federal environmental officials recently acknowledged: "If these devices end up in the environment as pollution, they may be harmful to wildlife and their habitats."

One year ago New Zealand introduced a plan called the “smoke-free generation” whereby starting in 2027 the legal age for the purchase of cigarettes will increase by a year annually in that country, so that anyone born after Jan. 1, 2009 will never be able to legally purchase them, amounting to a lifetime ban.

Last month they made it law. Malaysia announced similar plans last year, and many other countries are considering it. Over time such policies will morph into a complete ban on the sales of cigarettes, eliminating tobacco smoking entirely.

The big question, of course, remains: will it work? We all know the fate of alcohol prohibition in the United States a century ago — why should we believe tobacco prohibition would be any more successful? Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, on calling for a tobacco manufacture/sales ban in 2007, instructed “the real reason Prohibition failed is because the American public did not support it, believing correctly that most people could handle liquor without becoming alcoholics.”

Article by Roger Sollenberger and William Bredderman at The Daily Beast: Guess Who’s Secretly Backing This ‘Anti-Smoking’ Vape Group

Excerpt: "According to sources and internal documents, British American Tobacco has played a central and hands-on role in orchestrating, directing, and funding the World Vapers’ Alliance—a seemingly grassroots lobbying group designed to recruit pro-vaping advocates around the world under an anti-smoking guise."

Airspace Action on Smoking and Health has dissolved itself as an organization registered under the BC Societies Act.

Why? Because Airspace has accomplished most of its objectives. If you look back to the time of the founding of Airspace in the late 1970’s,

• We published the Breather’s Dining Guide for the entire Province of B.C. It was originally a very short list, and at that time, many restaurants, and only one pub, even had non-smoking sections.

• There were few restrictions on smoking in workplaces.

• There were few restrictions on smoking in public places such as shopping malls.

• Laws against the sale of cigarettes to children were rarely enforced. Many schools had smoking areas.

• Cigarettes were heavily advertised via sponsorships of motor races, film festivals, music festivals, and fashion shows. Much of the British Columbia media was on board for these events.

You probably have some memories of the many great things that Airspace did, and we invite you to share them with us.

Things such as Airspace's kiddie stings on cigarette vendors, former Airspace President Heather Mackenzie's numerous lawsuits against the tobacco industry, Airspace's booths at trade shows, our Bedfellows award, and our demonstrations against industry-funded events such as the Benson & Hedges Fireworks, Player's Indy Racing, the Matinee Fashion Show and the du Maurier Jazz Festival.

Or Airspace's fights on issues too numerous to mention such as advertising, vaping, 2nd-hand marijuana smoke, plain-packaging, smoking in multi-unit dwellings, mail-order cigarettes, and the BC College of Pharmacists defense of selling cigarettes in pharmacies.

Our annual Christmas caroling in front of the Imperial Tobacco office on Grandview in Vancouver was an embarrassment to the tobacco industry. They later closed that office and moved their operations to Calgary.

We shed light on the tobacco industry’s involvement in cigarette smuggling, and the use of BC health care facilities for cigarette product testing.

The Grim Reaper was a constant thorn in the side to the tobacco industry and their friends, and in his alter ego as Airspace president Errol Povah, he walked across Canada in 2010 to raise money for his Journey for a Tobacco-Free World initiative and raised hell at tobacco-industry conferences from Thailand to Malaysia.

We published the hard-hitting Breathers’ Digest and distributed it to nearly one hundred public libraries in BC, and have provided numerous resources to hundreds of others in the fight against the industry.

However, this web site and our Facebook page will be continued indefinitely.

Airspace wishes to express a heartfelt thanks to all those who have supported us over the years, and hope that our efforts, with your support, have led to better lives for all of us in this province.

From all of us at Airspace, thank you again.

Those "good corporate citizens" at British American Tobacco (owner of Imperial Tobacco, purveyors of Player's, Matinee, and Du Maurier) bribed a corrupt dictator. Here's the story from BBC: British American Tobacco negotiated bribe for Mugabe, new evidence suggests

Excerpt: "Documents show British American Tobacco (BAT) was involved in negotiations to pay between $300,000 and $500,000 to Mugabe's Zanu-PF party in 2013.

"The documents also reveal BAT was paying bribes in South Africa and using illegal surveillance to damage rivals.

"BAT says it is committed to the highest standards of corporate conduct."

This is about BAT, the largest tobacco company doing business in Canada. And this is a news story from March 15, not 20 years ago. By Matthew Chapman, in The Defender: Big Tobacco Targets Youth With $1.4 Billion Marketing Campaign

Excerpt: °BAT has told regulators around the world that its new products, including heated tobacco and oral nicotine, are for current adult smokers. But as these sponsorships make clear, it has launched an aggressive £1 billion ($1.4 billion USD) marketing campaign that leans heavily on social media, concerts and sporting events, which could have the effect of encouraging young people to pick up a potentially deadly tobacco habit that still kills 8 million people a year."

Ken Hill died in January at the age of 62.

As is often the case when a successful corporate executive an wealthy person dies, the media sang his praises for supporting his Six Nations community, being involved in a number of charity initiatives, owning an ice hockey team and several local business. Niagara Falls, ON lit the falls blue and green one night in his honour.

Downplayed in all this was, the source of his fortune was the Grand River Enterprises cigarette company, the fourth largest tobacco company in Canada after Imperial Tobacco, Rothmans Benson and Hedges, and JTI-Macdonald. They also sold a lot of cigarettes in Germany.

Grand River Enterprises is known for the same lack of scruples as their larger competitors. They claimed to be exempt from Ontario provincial law, even though courts have ruled otherwise, and short-changed Ontario on provincial taxes. They thumbed their noses at the Federal government by running promotions for their brands. They were sued several times in the US for involvement in cigarette smuggling. In 2009, Hill was charged with 16 counts by the State of Washington for trafficking in contraband cigarettes but the following year, a jury found him not guilty on all counts.

No word in the various news articles about his death on whether he was a consumer of his own company's products.

From the British Medical Journal Tobacco Control Blog: Philip Morris and the Government of Canada collaborate on COVID-19 vaccine development

Excerpts: "The vaccine developer at the middle of the controversy—Quebec-based Medicago Inc.—is owned by two major foreign shareholders including Philip Morris Investments (PMI) and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma. PMI owns one-third of Medicago and its former vice-president of regulatory affairs is the President and CEO of the vaccine developer. PMI has reported investing an undisclosed sum in the development of the new vaccine."

"The government has over 50 vaccine candidates to choose from globally—including several in Canada—so there is no lack of 'clean' investment options.

"By collaborating with Philip Morris on its own vaccine candidate, the Government of Canada is demonstrating complete disregard for its treaty obligations under the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control. Moreover, the government appears to be turning a blind eye to the tobacco industry and the pandemic of eight million deaths annually that it is fueling."

BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson represented Philip Morris International in their court challenge to BC's Tobacco Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act. Here's the story from ThinkPol: BC Liberal leader batted for big tobacco against BC