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IMPERIAL TOBACCO CANADA LIMITED
Bob Bexon, President & CEO and Director of Du Maurier
Arts
Christina Dona, Manager, Media Relations
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ROTHMANS, BENSON & HEDGES INCORPORATED
John Macdonald, Director of Public Affairs
John Macdonald, Director of Public Affairs, is an
active representative for Rothmans, Benson & Hedges in
coordinating "ventilation solution" campaigns and
other second-hand smoke strategies. Below is a selection of
some internal tobacco industry memos outlining John Macdonald's
involvement in second-hand strategies and the tracking of
smoke-free bylaw campaigns across Canada:
Executive
Fax (February 24, 1995) . From John Macdonald, Rothmans,
Benson & Hedges to Tim Harris, Philip Morris International,
regarding possible ETS research and programs with the CTMC.
Agenda:
Evaluating Strategies in Response to Public Smoking Initiatives
(June 22, 1998) . One day meeting held at the Holiday
Inn Select, at Toronto's airport. Other attendees included
John Luik and Pierre Lemieux, both well-known tobacco industry
consultants.
Memo:
Meeting on Smoking Bans (June 3, 1998) . From Susan Walsh,
copied to John Macdonald, regarding a meeting with ventilation
consultants working on the hospitality issue through the Courtesy
of Choice program.
CTMC
memo: Public Smoking in Hamilton-Wentworth (November 21, 1997).
From David Small, copied to John Macdonald, regarding Hamilton-Wentworth's
proposed smoking ban and a strategy to introduce ventilation
technology as a compliance option. The memo also refers to
the Ontario Hotel and Motel Association and the Ontario Restaurant
Association (now the Ontario Restaurant, Hotel and Motel Association)
as "our hospitality allies", as well as discusses
how Courtesy of Choice (an industry ventilation program) is
actively working on the recruitment of hotels to advocate
ventilation.
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JTI-MACDONALD CORPORATION
Michel Poirier, Chairman, President & CEO
John Wildgust, Head of Corporate Affairs
Michel Poirier, Chairman, President & CEO, is
on the public record stating that there is no conclusive evidence
that second-hand smoke causes lung cancer, heart disease and
other illnesses, and therefore prohibiting smoking in public
places is not justified. Poirier is outspoken and his comments
have appeared frequently in the media.
On
October 16, 2002, Poirier addressed the Canadian Club in Montreal
in a speech entitled, "Ethics vs. Activists: The Tobacco
Industry Experience". When taking questions from reporters,
Poirier dismissed the positions of Health Canada and the World
Health Organization that second-hand smoke causes disease.
John Wildgust, Head of Corporate Affairs, has made
many public statements on the company's position on second-hand
smoke. Unlike Poirier, however, he has made more pointed comments
about the regulation of second-hand smoke in public places
and workplaces. In a July 20, 2002 Letter to the Editor of
the Brockville Recorder and Times, Wildgust responded to an
article written about the release of the June 2002 International
Agency for Research on Cancer Monograph, Tobacco Smoke and
Involuntary Smoking (Volume 83).
"When
it comes to ETS [environmental tobacco smoke]…we do
not believe that the scientific evidence, taken as a whole,
is sufficient to establish that ETS is a cause of disease.
We recognize, however, that ETS can be annoying and we therefore
believe in the right of non-smokers to be free from a smoky
atmosphere. This can be achieved in establishments such
as pubs and restaurants via mutual consideration, physical
separation and ventilation, for which sound scientific evidence
proves that adequate ventilation can actually lead to air
that is as clean as that in non-smoking areas."
The statement is a good example of how the industry attempts
to distract the public from the medical evidence by cloaking
the issue in the language of "rights" - the rights
of the smoker versus the rights of the non-smoker. References
to an "annoying" and "smoky" atmosphere
are crafted to downplay the fact that second-hand smoke is
a hazard to one's health.
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CANADIAN TOBACCO MANUFACTURERS' COUNCIL
Dave Laundy, Vice President, Western Canada
CTMC
memo: Update on Public Smoking Bans in Halifax, Toronto, Mississauga
& BC (July 15, 1998) . As the title suggests, the
memo is an update on smoking bylaw campaigns. The memo includes
information about City Council meetings and the status of
ventilation as a compliance option to be included in smoke-free
legislation. The memo also names two hospitality organizations
that have been actively fighting smoking bans, and describes
their working relationship with the CTMC. First, the author
writes that the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
(CRFA) is continuing its lobbying efforts in Nova Scotia.
Second, a request for assistance from the CTMC by Terry Mundell,
President & CEO of the Ontario Restaurant, Hotel and Motel
Association (ORHMA - at the time of writing the Ontario Restaurant
Association is noted). It is revealed that a request for funding
from the Hotel Association of Canada will be made for the
Ontario Restaurant Association.
CTMC
memo: Ventilation and Public Smoking. Consumers Gas Now On-Side
in Toronto (March 30, 1998) . The memo refers to Consumers
Gas agreeing to publicly support the Ontario Restaurant Association's
(now the Ontario Restaurant, Hotel and Motel Association)
call for a ventilation solution. Norman Hutchison, representative
for Consumers Gas, is described as having working on air quality
issues, including workplace smoking and committee work for
ASHRAE. Derrick Finn,
a ventilation consultant to the ORHMA, is named as the CTMC's
"technical advisor".
CTMC
memo: Public Smoking in Hamilton-Wentworth (November 21, 1997)
. The memo outlines Hamilton-Wentworth's proposed smoking
ban and a strategy to introduce ventilation technology as
a compliance option. The memo also refers to the Ontario Hotel
and Motel Association and the Ontario Restaurant Association
(now the ORHMA) as "our hospitality allies", as
well as discusses how Courtesy of Choice is actively working
on the recruitment of hotels in the area to advocate ventilation.
CTMC
memo: Ventilation Alternative to Smoking Bans (March 20, 1998)
. The memo lays out the CTMC's plan to fund a "ventilation
alternative" to Toronto and Mississauga's smoking bans,
with the hope of developing something similar in British Columbia.
The Ontario Restaurant Association (now the ORHMA), among
other hospitality "allies", are named as those groups
that will presenting the tobacco industry-sponsored plan to
municipal councils. Furthermore, the memo reveals that the
"ventilation alternative" proposal was developed
by Courtesy of Choice, the Hotel Association of Canada and
the ORHMA.
Dave Laundy, Vice President for Western Canada, has
been an outspoken employee of the CTMC on the topics of second-hand
smoke and smoke-free legislation. The media has described
him a sincere man who makes a simple case for Big Tobacco.
In a June
13, 2000 CBC radio interview Laundy confirmed that the
Hotel Association of Canada (HAC) had been receiving approximately
$800,000/year from the CTMC for several years to promote Courtesy
of Choice. It was later revealed that the HAC had received
a total $3.2 million from 1997-2000 ($800,000/year) for the
Courtesy of Choice program (Heidemann D. Who's funding
the fight against the smoking ban in B.C.? BCTV. June
15, 2000).
In a CBC television investigation, "On the trail of
Big Tobacco", broadcast March 24, 2003 in Edmonton and
March 28, 2003 in Calgary, Laundy admitted that the tobacco
industry "employs people in every provincial capital
to keep them abreast of what's going on in provincial government"
and to collect "political intelligence". To read
more, see ASH's March 25, 2003 press release entitled "ASH demands that tobacco companies disclose their provincial lobbyists."
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