The Star reported, “Ontario is suing tobacco companies for $50 billion to recover costs of treating citizens with smoking-related illnesses since 1955.”

Furthermore, “the Ontario government says smoking is the number one preventable cause of death in the province, killing 13,000 people a year - or 36 per day - and costs taxpayers $1.6 billion annually.”

It’s likely that the action will take years to get to the courts. Despite, the fact that it’s readily proven that tobacco use kills and causes serious illness it will be interesting to see what line of defence the tobacco companies will use. Other than the typical i.e., that people chose to smoke and accept the health hazards voluntarily.

The Star article can be found here.