The Responsibility of Free Will

"These manufacturers neglected to warn consumers, including children and teenagers, about the harmful aspects of their products", fulminated Quebec Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier, righteously.  And British American Tobacco (Imperial Tobacco Canada), Rothmans, Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds are put on notice that the province has launched a suit for $60 billion against them.

That's punishment for manufacturing, advertising and selling a product that has been horribly injurious to the health of society.  This, from a government that has traditionally been in cahoots with those purveyors of ill health, through enabling their products' sales, while the government skims off handsome revenues through the imposition of taxes. 

That money, going into the government's general fund would also pay for the hospitals and the medical professionals' fees for looking after the resulting impaired health of those addicted to tobacco.  Quebec is not alone in its search to recover funding it has been liable for, in looking to the care of its citizens; Ontario, British Columbia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland have launched their own lawsuits.

Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are right behind.  Not to be left out, Alberta will also seek to recover damages from those dastardly tobacco manufacturers and purveyors of ill health.  Action taken by state governments in the United States have led the way.  Their successful prosecution, proving that the tobacco companies knew from their own research how deadly a product they flogged, has prompted others to follow suit.

And they have and they will continue to do so.  It's a slam-dunk, after all.  "This action", protested Imperial Tobacco Canada was hypocritical, "even more duplicitous when one considers the major role played by the government of Quebec and the governments of other provinces in the sale of other products for which the risks are well known, including alcohol and gambling."  Ah, yes, that is perfectly true.  And so?

That hefty $60-billion, characterized as a "cash grab" by Imperial Tobacco Canada's vice-president of law, represents damages related to the immense cost picked up by the province of treating patients from the 1970s - and well into the future - until 2030.  Of course, in the 1970s it was well enough known that tobacco caused cancer.  It didn't stop people from smoking then, and it doesn't stop people now either, other than that the proportion of people who do smoke has decreased.

Governments are, of course, almost as guilty as the tobacco manufacturers.  Prohibition never really works, so government does the next best thing; it permits gambling, alcohol, smoking, knowing that addiction will prevail, and revenues through taxation will stuff government coffers.  And just incidentally help pay for the whatever remedial after-the-fact issues evolve.

The other, separate lawsuit launched by two million Quebecers seeking $27-billion is yet another of these absurd suits.  These are people who knew that they were gambling with their health by choosing to smoke.  No one insisted they begin smoking, it was common knowledge that smoking is both seductively habit-forming and that its practise leads to an abuse of one's body.

But it served the purpose of people who felt they had the right to exercise their own judgement.  And now they look to the courts to exercise a different judgement on their behalf.