Feds called a 'senior partner' in tobacco industry

The federal government - which helped tobacco companies develop low-tar cigarettes in the late 1960s - has asked the Supreme Court of Canada to weigh in on a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the tobacco industry to recoup health costs related to smoking.

The Justice Department is seeking leave to appeal a December court ruling in the British Columbia Court of Appeal, which exposed the federal government to potential liability by concluding it should be a third-party defendant in the suit, launched by the B.C. government.

The trial, expected to begin next year, is the first of several legal challenges nationwide in which provinces are seeking to recover health costs.

Tobacco manufacturers maintain the government should share responsibility for health costs because Agriculture Canada conducted its own research while regulating the industry, knew of international studies linking smoking and lung cancer, and nonetheless encouraged and aided the industry in developing light and mild brands.

"The fact of the matter is that the federal government is a senior partner in the tobacco industry," said Eric Gagnon, a spokesman for Imperial Tobacco, one of the manufacturers named in the suit. "We believe it is important for the government to answer, as the tobacco industry will, on its involvement in the development of the industry in Canada."

The B.C. decision could open up the government to responsibility in other suits against the tobacco industry filed in Ontario and New Brunswick, and pending actions in Quebec and Manitoba.

"The decision would substantially expand the sphere of duties owed by government in its response to public-health risks posed by a commercially supplied product," the federal government said in its Supreme Court application.

The Canadian Cancer Society said tobacco makers should shoulder the entire blame because companies intentionally suppressed the health hazards of light and mild brands of cigarettes, hiding the information from consumers and the government.

"The tobacco industry's historic strategy has been to try to blame someone else," said Rob Cunningham, a cancer society senior policy analyst.

If the Supreme Court takes on the appeal, it will be its second foray into the long-standing legal battle. The court ruled in 2005 that B.C. had the legal right to sue tobacco companies.

The Canadian lawsuits were inspired by American litigation during the 1990s that ended in mass multimillion-dollar settlements.