The award is the result of two class-action lawsuits which were filed 17 years ago; the trial only began in March 2012.
In 1998 two smokers, Cecilia Letourneau and Jean-Yves Blais, began lawsuits which eventually joined to make a single trial. The class action from Letourneau, who said she was unable to quit smoking, was filed on behalf of 918,000 addicted smokers, and the Blais case represented almost 100,000 smokers and ex-smokers who developed lung cancer, throat cancer or emphysema from smoking.
Jean-Yves Blais, who also suffered from emphysema, died of lung cancer in 2012 at the age of 68.
"When my husband started smoking in the 1950s at the age of 10 he didn’t know the risks linked to cigarettes," said his widow, Lise Blais, in a statement released Monday evening. "He tried several times to stop smoking but never succeeded. Unfortunately he didn’t live long enough to see the result of this trial."
"Over the nearly fifty years of the class period, and in the seventeen years since, the companies earned billions of dollars at the expense of the lungs, the throats and the general well-being of their customers," wrote Riordan in his judgment.
The tobacco companies said they would appeal the decision, having presented evidence at the trial to show that governments and the public were aware of the health risks; Imperial Tobacco highlighted a 1963 Gallup poll according to which 96 percent of Canadians were aware that smoking might cause lung cancer.
The judgment "ignores the reality that both adult consumers and governments have known about the risks associated with smoking for decades and seeks to relieve adult consumers of any responsibility for their actions," said the company in a statement.
Of the C$15.5 billion in damages, Imperial Tobacco, was ordered to pay C$10.5 billion, with Riordan calling the firm "the industry leader on many fronts, including that of hiding the truth from – and misleading – the public."
Rothmans Benson & Hedges was ordered to pay C$3.1 billion, and JTI-Macdonald C$2 billion. The companies must issue initial compensation of more than C$1 billion in the next 60 days, regardless of any appeal.
Those smokers who were part of the class action and developed smoking-related diseases will get a financial reward. Smokers with cancer will get C$80,000 or C$100,000, depending on when they began smoking. Smokers with emphysema will get C$24,000 or C$30,000.
