Denis Coté's wonderful archive of tobacco promotions

An important set of exhibits in the Montreal tobacco trial has recently come on line on the plaintiff's valuable database of exhibits  -- a selection of photographs taken by Denis Coté, the former editor of Info-Tabac.

du Maurier Jazz on
St. Catherine Street, 1988
Exhibit 1513.7

As he describes it in the affidavit prepared for the plaintiffs (Exhibit 1500), Mr. Coté routinely collected photos of sponsored events in Montreal, Sorel and Three Rivers in the mid 1990s. Looking at these photos today is a reminder of how Montreal's festival season was a veritable billboard for smoking!

Curiously, these images were never shown in the courtroom.

An agreement was reached between the plaintiffs and the defendant companies for Mr. Coté's collection to be quietly put on the record on April 2nd. (The manner in which it was introduced also meant that the details of the exhibits do not appear on the transcript).

Justice Riordan has lived in Montreal for decades and appears to have an excellent memory. But even he would have likely been struck by the "blast from the past" produced by these images - most of which date from the years leading up to 1998, when this lawsuit was filed.

The entire collection of photographs offered by Denis Coté is not yet available. By inference, it will span exhibit numbers 1500 to 1524. In the meantime, those that are available are a reminder of how much Montreal has changed since this lawsuit began.

For information on accessing documents, see note at the end of this post


du Maurier Jazz Festival, du Maurier Arts, du Maurier exterior ads1511.1, 1511.2, 1511.3, 1511.4, 1511.5, 1512.1, 1512.3, 1512.4, 1513.2, 1513.3, 1513.4, 1513.5, 1513.6, 1513.7, 1513.8, 1514.1, 1514.2, 1514.3, 1514.4, 1514.5, 1514.6, 1514.7


Belvedere Rock music
1509.1, 1509.2, 1509.3, 1509.4, 1509.5, 1509.6


Craven A - Just for Laughs
1510.1, 1510.2, 1510.3, 1510.4, 1510.5, 1510.6, 1510.7, 1510.8, 1510.9, 1510.10, 1510.11, 1510.12, 1510.13, 1510.14, 1510.15, 1510.16, 1510.17, 1510.18, 1510.19, 1510.20, 1510.21



Benson and Hedges Fireworks
1508.1, 1508.2, 1508.4, 1508.5,

Export A Extreme Sports
1517.1, 1517.2, 1517.3, 1517.4, 1517.5, 1517.6, 1517.7, 1517.8, 1517.9, 1517.10, 1517.12, 1517.13, 1517.14


The documents are on the web-site maintained by the Plaintiff's lawyers. To access them, it is necessary to gain entry to the web-site. Fortunately, this is easy to do.

Step 1: Click on: https://tobacco.asp.visard.ca

Step 2: Click on the blue bar on the splash-page "Acces direct a l'information/direct access to information" You will then be taken to the document data base.

Step 3: Return to this blog - and click on any links.

The next hearing of the Montreal tobacco trial is on April 23rd.