Canada: Australian Legislator behind Tough Tobacco Laws Spreads Message to Quebec

Source from:  Montreal Gazette (ca)  08/19/2013

The Australian legislator behind the world's most stringent cigarette-labelling law is urging Quebec to follow her country's lead by introducing "plain packaging" for cigarettes.

On Tuesday, former Australian attorney general Nicola Roxon will address a National Assembly committee studying possible revisions to the Quebec Tobacco Act. In Quebec City at the invitation of the Coalition Québécoise pour le Contrôle du Tabac, Roxon, who also served as health minister in her country's Labour government, has also lined up a one-on-one phone call Monday with Quebec Health Minister Réjean Hébert.

"I'm here to help their campaign urging Quebec and Canada to consider taking the next step in tobacco control," Roxon said in a telephone interview from her hotel.

In December, Australia imposed legislation requiring cigarettes to be sold in drab brown packs with the product name in an unadorned font. The so-called plain packages are hardly plain, however, since 75 per cent of the front and 90 per cent of the back are covered by graphic photos illustrating the dangers of smoking.

While it is too early to know for sure whether smoking has actually decreased as a result of the measure, many Australians have been complaining their cigarettes taste worse since the packaging changed.

Roxon, who quit politics in February to spend more time with her family, said research shows her government's legislation is effective in discouraging smoking — particularly among people who haven't started yet.

"We know that people who are already addicted find it difficult to give up. The real game is about stopping new people (from) getting addicted. And obviously, if you can also encourage people to quit, that's great," she said.

Roxon said Canada and Quebec are known as world pioneers in the fight against smoking, but this country's efforts to stamp out the deadly habit have stalled in recent years.

"Australia has followed Quebec and Canada on quite a lot of tobacco control, so it's nice once we've skipped ahead, to be able to say: 'Why don't you come and join us back at the front again?' " she said.

Canada has required health warnings on cigarette packs since 1994. Since 2001, packs have also carried graphic images of cancerous lungs, diseased mouths and rotten teeth. Last year, the government introduced 15 new illustrated health warnings that now cover more than 75 per cent of packs.

But anti-smoking advocates say that cigarette manufacturers have sidestepped the measures by introducing attractive packaging inside the removable sleeve bearing the health warnings. Cigarettes are also marketed in slim packs that look like lipstick containers. Such marketing ploys would be illegal under the Australian legislation.

Across Canada, 20.3 per cent of adults were smokers in 2012, compared to 21.4 per cent in 2008, according to Statistics Canada. Nationwide, 23.1 per cent of men and 17.5 per cent of women were smokers in 2012, down from 24.3 per cent of men and 18.5 per cent of women in 2008.

In Quebec, smoking actually rose slightly from 2008 to 2012. In the province, 23.8 per cent of adults smoked in 2012, compared to 23.3 per cent in 2008.

Smokers accounted for of 27.4 per cent of Quebec men and 20.3 per cent of Quebec women in 2012. In 2008, 25.5 per cent of Quebec men and 21.2 per cent of Quebec women were smokers.

In Australia, 20.4 per cent of men smoked in 2011-12, down from 23 per cent in 2007-08, according to the country's National Health Survey. Among Australian women, 16.3 per cent smoked in 2011-12, down from 19 per cent in 2007-08.

Roxon, 46, is the niece of the famous Australian journalist Lillian Roxon, author of the 1969 rock and roll bible Lillian Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia.

When Nicola Roxon was 10, her father, a smoker, died of cancer of the esophagus.

"No family wants to go through that," she said.

"When you're in a position (…) to be able to possibly have some family in the future not have to go through that, because their father or mother didn't take up smoking when they were young, then not acting almost feels like the equivalent of killing people," said Roxon, a Sydney native who was a lawyer and trade-union organizer before entering politics in 1998.

Last year, Australia's High Court ruled against three multinational tobacco companies that had sought to block the cigarette-packaging law.

The Ukraine, Honduras and the Dominican Republic have also challenged Australia's plain-packaging law in the World Trade Organization, claiming it is inconsistent with international trade obligations.

Asked why she was making the case for plain packaging to the Quebec government rather than the federal government, which normally legislates on cigarette packaging, Roxon said she had no wish to meddle in federal-provincial affairs but came because she was invited by the Quebec coalition.

"As an outsider, I'm very wary" of jumping into federal-provincial relations," Roxon said.

"It's really just for me to talk about the Australian experience."

In March, the federal government tabled a bill in the Senate to crack down on the illegal tobacco industry by making it a Criminal Code offence to sell, distribute or transport contraband cigarettes.

Roxon said Australia has also increased penalties and policing to combat illicit tobacco sales.

The National Assembly's Health and Social Services Committee will hold public hearings Tuesday and Wednesday on the Tobacco Act.

In addition to the coalition, participants will include the Canadian Cancer Society, Institut national de santé publique, Montreal's health and social-services agency, bar-proprietors, dépanneur-owners and Imperial Tobacco.

Anti-smoking groups are expected to call on the government to outlaw flavoured cigarettes and cigarillos, and ban smoking in cars with children. Enditem