The laws on advertising too prohibitive, claimed tobacco companies

The three major Canadian tobacco companies on Monday appealed to the Supreme Court with a claim on the existing laws on advertising, which in their opinion, so limit actions tobacco product manufacturers that they can be tantamount to a total ban. As the representatives of Imperial Tobacco Canada, JTI-Macdonald and Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, they have a constitutional right to advertise, but current laws do not allow them to do so.
According to the 1997 Federal Law on Tobacco Industry, cigarette manufacturers could advertise only in establishments that only adults attend. According to Simon Potter, a lawyer Imperial Tobacco companies, it is impossible to observe the law, and therefore advertising of tobacco companies could be considered illegal.
- I find it hard to imagine an ad that could not count as aimed at, say, 17 - years of a child - he said yesterday in court.
Simon Potter wants the court to set precise limits on tobacco advertising, as well as that for tobacco companies distributed rules similar to those that apply to beer companies. Recall that the last before release advertising, it must agree with the Government.
Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was the latest step in a decade of struggle tobacco companies that had already applied to the provincial courts of appeal. In the Supreme Court against his attorneys general of New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia, as well as the Canadian Society of cancer.
Yesterday's meeting of the High Court was the first and last in the case, a decision on which would be taken only after a few months.