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Company's former boss says U.K. owner frustrated ambitions
Jump to full article: Toronto (Ont) Star (ca), 2000-11-23
Author: Peter Small / STAFF REPORTER
Intro: British American Tobacco resisted efforts by its Canadian subsidiary, Imasco, to develop a safer cigarette in the 1980s, Imasco's former chief executive testified yesterday.
Purdy Crawford said although the Imasco board was very keen to develop the safer cigarette, it was disappointed it wasn't able to convince its minority owner, British American Tobacco (BAT) of London, to lend its support and expertise to the project.
Crawford told a North York small claims court yesterday that Jean Louis Mercier, then chief executive of Imasco-owned Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., ``was frustrated in dealing with his contemporaries at BAT.''
``He was crestfallen, as I recall.'' . .
Crawford told Battaglia's lawyer, Doug Lennox, that he didn't order anyone at Imperial Tobacco to inform Health Canada about research pointing to a possibly safer cigarette. As head of Imasco, he had no day-to-day control of the subsidiary and it wasn't his style to give it orders, he said.
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