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Canada's three biggest tobacco companies face C$27.25 billion ($27.43 billion) in damages and penalties. |
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Canada's three biggest tobacco companies, all with multinational parents, face C$27.25 billion ($27.43 billion) in damages and penalties as the largest civil lawsuit in the country's history to go to trial started on Monday. The companies, Imperial Tobacco Canada, JTI-Macdonald Corp and Rothmans Benson & Hedges, are named in the class action suit by a group of current and former smokers in the province of Quebec. At question in the trial in Quebec Superior Court in Montreal is whether the companies adequately warned smokers of the dangers of cigarettes. It is the first time tobacco companies have gone to trial in a civil suit in Canada. The plaintiffs say they were hoodwinked into buying an addictive product and have since developed a range of smoking-related illnesses, including lung cancer and emphysema. The tobacco firms say the suits amount to "an opportunistic cash grab" as the risks of smoking have been known for decades. "Tobacco manufacturers must be held accountable for their actions, and legal proceedings provide a key opportunity to bring about a fundamental change in this industry's business practices," said the Canadian Cancer Society's Melanie Champagne. More than 10,000 people die each year in Quebec from causes directly linked to smoking. Quebec's annual healthcare spending on tobacco-related ailments tops C$1 billion, according to the Canadian Cancer Society. The lawsuit is the first of a series of multibillion-dollar suits against Canadian tobacco companies. Provincial governments also plan huge lawsuits in hopes of recovering billions of healthcare dollars spent to treat the victims of tobacco use. With tens of millions of pages of documents already exchanged, the Quebec trial could go on for years. The tobacco companies are not scheduled to start to present their evidence until February 2013. The Canadian government regulates and taxes the tobacco industry, and has imposed graphic warnings on cigarette packages in recent years. Canada also restricts how tobacco is marketed and sold in an effort to dissuade consumption. (Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
加拿大史上最大規模的民事訴訟案于本周一開始審理，該國三家最大的跨國煙草公司將面臨272.5億加元（274.3億美元）的賠償和處罰。 魁北克省的煙民和已戒煙的民眾發起了這場集體訴訟，將帝國煙草公司、JTI-麥克唐納煙草公司以及樂富門本森與赫奇煙草公司告上法庭。 這起案件在蒙特利爾的魁北克高等法院開庭審理，爭議的焦點在于這幾家煙草公司是否充分警告了煙民吸煙的危害。這是煙草公司首次在加拿大成為民事訴訟的被告。 原告認為，他們受到了欺騙，才購買了可上癮的煙草產品，并因此患上與吸煙有關的多種疾病，包括肺癌和肺氣腫。 而煙草公司認為，這起訴訟案無異于通過投機取巧來搶錢，因為人們幾十年來一直很清楚吸煙的危害。 加拿大防癌協會的梅蘭妮?昌佩恩說：“煙草商必須為自己的行為負責，法律訴訟為從根本上改變煙草業的商業行為提供了一個關鍵時機。” 根據加拿大防癌協會的數據，魁北克每年有一萬多人死于吸煙直接導致的疾病，每年用于吸煙相關疾病的醫療支出高達10億加元。 這起訴訟是針對加拿大煙草公司發起的一系列訴訟的第一起，這些訴訟的金額都高達數十億美元。加拿大各省政府還計劃發起大規模訴訟，以期補償用于治療煙草導致的疾病患者的數十億美元醫療費用。 已交換的訴訟文件已達數千萬頁，魁北克的這起官司可能持續數年。煙草公司打算在明年2月份再公布自己的證據。 加拿大政府負責監管煙草業并征稅，最近幾年還在香煙外包裝印上了警示圖案。加拿大還對煙草業的市場銷售進行限制，以勸阻消費。 相關閱讀 （中國日報網英語點津 Julie 編輯：陳丹妮） |
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Vocabulary: class action: 集體訴訟，共同起訴 hoodwink: 蒙蔽，欺騙 |
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