Canada's three biggest tobacco companies, all with multinational parents, face C$27.25 billion ($27.43 billion) in damages and penalties as the largest civil lawsuit in the country's history to go to trial started on Monday.
The companies, Imperial Tobacco Canada, JTI-Macdonald Corp and Rothmans Benson & Hedges, are named in the class action suit by a group of current and former smokers in the province of Quebec.
At question in the trial in Quebec Superior Court in Montreal is whether the companies adequately warned smokers of the dangers of cigarettes. It is the first time tobacco companies have gone to trial in a civil suit in Canada.
The plaintiffs say they were hoodwinked into buying an addictive product and have since developed a range of smoking-related illnesses, including lung cancer and emphysema.
The tobacco firms say the suits amount to "an opportunistic cash grab" as the risks of smoking have been known for decades.
"Tobacco manufacturers must be held accountable for their actions, and legal proceedings provide a key opportunity to bring about a fundamental change in this industry's business practices," said the Canadian Cancer Society's Melanie Champagne.
More than 10,000 people die each year in Quebec from causes directly linked to smoking. Quebec's annual healthcare spending on tobacco-related ailments tops C$1 billion, according to the Canadian Cancer Society.
The lawsuit is the first of a series of multibillion-dollar suits against Canadian tobacco companies. Provincial governments also plan huge lawsuits in hopes of recovering billions of healthcare dollars spent to treat the victims of tobacco use.
With tens of millions of pages of documents already exchanged, the Quebec trial could go on for years. The tobacco companies are not scheduled to start to present their evidence until February 2013.
The Canadian government regulates and taxes the tobacco industry, and has imposed graphic warnings on cigarette packages in recent years. Canada also restricts how tobacco is marketed and sold in an effort to dissuade consumption.
加拿大史上最大规模的民事诉讼案于本周一开始审理，该国三家最大的跨国烟草公司将面临272.5亿加元（274.3亿美元）的赔偿和处罚。
魁北克省的烟民和已戒烟的民众发起了这场集体诉讼，将帝国烟草公司、JTI-麦克唐纳烟草公司以及乐富门本森与赫奇烟草公司告上法庭。
这起案件在蒙特利尔的魁北克高等法院开庭审理，争议的焦点在于这几家烟草公司是否充分警告了烟民吸烟的危害。这是烟草公司首次在加拿大成为民事诉讼的被告。
原告认为，他们受到了欺骗，才购买了可上瘾的烟草产品，并因此患上与吸烟有关的多种疾病，包括肺癌和肺气肿。
而烟草公司认为，这起诉讼案无异于通过投机取巧来抢钱，因为人们几十年来一直很清楚吸烟的危害。
加拿大防癌协会的梅兰妮?昌佩恩说：“烟草商必须为自己的行为负责，法律诉讼为从根本上改变烟草业的商业行为提供了一个关键时机。”
根据加拿大防癌协会的数据，魁北克每年有一万多人死于吸烟直接导致的疾病，每年用于吸烟相关疾病的医疗支出高达10亿加元。
这起诉讼是针对加拿大烟草公司发起的一系列诉讼的第一起，这些诉讼的金额都高达数十亿美元。加拿大各省政府还计划发起大规模诉讼，以期补偿用于治疗烟草导致的疾病患者的数十亿美元医疗费用。
已交换的诉讼文件已达数千万页，魁北克的这起官司可能持续数年。烟草公司打算在明年2月份再公布自己的证据。
加拿大政府负责监管烟草业并征税，最近几年还在香烟外包装印上了警示图案。加拿大还对烟草业的市场销售进行限制，以劝阻消费。
Vocabulary:
class action: 集体诉讼，共同起诉
hoodwink: 蒙蔽，欺骗
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