During a brief (15 minute!) hearing this morning before Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz, counsel for the Quebec tobacco class actions reported that August 29th was the target date to implement the settlement agreement that would end all pending litigation against Canada's tobacco companies.
This may be the first public statement to this effect. The information was relayed during a discussion of administrative issues which need to be resolved before the companies begin to pay compensation.
The purpose of today's hearing was to obtain court orders on the following pre-implementation issues:
- the transfer and use of the $1 billion security deposit imposed on two companies by the Quebec Court of Appeal in 2015. For the last 10 years this money has been held in trust by the Quebec government (without accruing any interest). It is expected that in July the Quebec Court of Appeal will be asked to order the transfer.
- a settlement that resolves all claims by a small number of pensioners of a former Imperial Tobacco subsidiary.
- settlements between Imperial Tobacco and four insurance companies with which the company had policies.
- agreements among Imperial Tobacco and the Canada Revenue Agency and Revenue Quebec to resolve tax disputes within the context of the CCAA proceedings.
There were no objections to these requests and representatives of the parties involved were on hand to voice their support. The judge said these orders would be issued this morning with brief reasons (endorsements) to follow. When available, these will appear on the websites of the Monitors for the companies involved:
At the end of this session, Chief Justice Morawetz acknowledged that he had yet to rule on how much the lawyers representing Quebec smokers would be paid, but said his decision would be made public "long before the implementation date."
