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.

(Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

双语资讯

(Agencies)

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

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。

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