Rothmans v. Saskatchewan

A section of the Saskatchewan Tobacco Control Act prohibits advertising, promoting and sponsoring any tobacco products where minors are allowed to enter while a section of  the Federal Tobacco Act permits tobacco retailers to display and post signs of the products. The Saskatchewan government appealed for the validity of their law, which was denied by the Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court held that the two Acts were consistent and the Saskatchewan law was operative because of the paramountcy principle and there was no conflict between the two laws. 

Rothmans v. Saskatchewan, [2005] 1 S.C.R. 188, Supreme Court of Canada (2005).

  • Canada
  • Mar 18, 2005
  • Supreme Court of Canada
Download Document

Parties

Plaintiff Government of Saskatchewan

Defendant Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc.

Legislation Cited

Related Documents

Type of Litigation

None

Tobacco Control Topics

Substantive Issues

Type of Tobacco Product

None

"Read in the context of the Tobacco Act as a whole, it is clear that the purpose and effect of s. 30 is to define with greater precision the prohibition on the promotion of tobacco products contained in s. 19. Specifically, it serves to exclude from the wide net of s. 19 promotion by way of retail display. In this way, it is like ss. 22(2), 26(1) and 28(1) of the Tobacco Act, which also exclude from the s. 19 prohibition certain types of tobacco product promotion that it might otherwise capture. This demarcation of the s. 19 prohibition represents a measured approach to protecting “young persons and others from inducements to use tobacco products”, one of the purposes of the Tobacco Act set out in s. 4."