Tobacco.org

Federal Government About To Legislate a Lie into Law 

Bill C-32, An Act to Amend the Tobacco Act, is currently being debated and will likely pass Second Reading in the House of Commons shortly. By all indications, further to the discussion led in the House yesterday, it would appear that the Bill will likely find little obstacle within Parliament and effectively become law by the end of June. When this happens, thousands of legitimate Canadian businesses and jobs will be destroyed. As a result, Casa Cubana is immediately seeking a federal government bail-out. This bail-out sought, however is not one which will cost Canadians, but rather benefit them - by asking government not for money, but rather honesty, integrity and accountability.

While private sector stakeholders like Casa Cubana will continue to try to properly educate and inform politicians on the issue, we remain quite discouraged at the obvious notion that several politicians have since demonstrated through their support of this Bill (yesterday) a gross lack of knowledge about these products and understanding of effective tobacco control policy, says Luc Martial (in charge of government affairs with Casa Cubana and formerly with the Non-Smokers' Rights Association, the Canadian Council on Smoking and Health, the National Clearinghouse on Tobacco and Health, and the Tobacco Control Programme at Health Canada).

While Casa Cubana has not lost complete hope that common sense may still one day prevail in the House of Commons, it is at this time being forced to consider its broader legal options. Should the bail-out sought not be forthcoming, Casa Cubana will be considering seeking legal advice on the possibility of bringing legal action against some politicians and anti-tobacco groups for libel and defamation. Through an orchestrated hate and misinformation campaign against an otherwise legitimate and legal Canadian company, these individuals and organizations will have since secured unjustified proposed legislation that will have a direct and devastating financial impact on thousands of legitimate Canadian business owners across the country. Casa Cubana now challenges these outspoken politicians to effectively step outside the secured, absolute-privileged parameters of the House of Commons and reiterate the offensive statements and unsupported allegations they have since made (yesterday) about these products and the companies that manufacture and distribute them.

Casa Cubana will also consider seeking a legal opinion on a possible anti-trust legal action against the government, which through Bill C-32, is effectively proposing to arbitrarily ban our legitimate tobacco products in favor of those manufactured and distributed by our competitors. In this sense, the government's Bill, if it were to become law, would knowingly and simply just shift Casa Cubana's legal tobacco sales to (1) criminal groups

Jump to full article »