Tobacco tiff

-- Ottawa's tobacco
industry in Canada
can once again woo
the public by
flaunting it's ware. For
seven years,
tobacco manufacturers were
restricted from
indulging in
promotional
campaigns,
thanks to the 1988
Tobacco Products Control Act
which put a blanket ban on advertising.

But the Supreme
Court of Canada is
convinced that the
federal government has
been extra harsh with tobacco
merchants. Recently, in a
landmark ruling, it
accused the federal government
of failing to ascertain that a
near-total ban on
advertising was the
only means of
achieving its
legislative objective of
phasing out cigarette consumption.
-Far less intrusive" measures
like advertisement
bans aimed at
children, or even
labelling requirements,
might have produced the same
results, opined
Madam Justice
Beverley Maclachlin.

The Court responded to an
appeal launched in
1989 by Imperial Tobacco
Inc. It rejected
The government's
arguments that the
ban was permissible under
constitutional
provisions allowing
infringement of
rights in cases
where such violations are
established as
-reasonable and
demon.
strably justified
in a free and
democratic society".

Meanwhile, the
anti-tobacco lobby is spewing
fire. They have
demanded that
Ottawa immediately invoke a
special "notwithstanding- clause
of the constitution allowing the
government to override the
Charter rulings.
Demands are also
being made to brand tobacco as a
hazardous product or drug.

Tobacco merchants,
too, are cautious at the
moment. Robert
Parker, president
of the Tobacco
Manufacturer's
Council, assured
angry activists
that the industry
will not resume
advertising until
it has consulted the
government on mutually
acceptable restrictions.