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

Jan 30, 2025 | 3:46 PM

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.