Tobacco insider stands up for victims

A renowned Tobacco insider is in Montreal this week to speak up for Tobacco victims.

Jeffrey Wigand is testifying at Quebec Supreme Court this week as part of Canada's largest class-action lawsuit between smoking victims and large tobacco companies.

In a report by CBC Montreal, Wigand testimony suggests that he was a former tobacco scientist at Brown and Williamson, a U-S based cigarette company in 1989.

While working there, Wigand says the company was giving misleading messages about tobacco's effects to the general public despite acknowledging its health risks.

The 27-billion-dollar lawsuit is led by two groups that represent 1-point-8 million Quebec smokers - those who become ill from smoking and another group claiming they couldn't quit.

It's pitted against Canada's three largest cigarette companies - Imperial Tobacco, J-T-I MacDonald and Rothmans Benson & Hedges.

Wigand is known to be a famous whistleblower when he revealed to the television newsmagazine show 60 Minutes that tobacco companies were hiding the health risks of cigarettes.  

His revelation provoked him to testify at a lawsuit versus the five biggest American tobacco companies, bringing a settlement of 368-billion U-S dollars in favor of state governments in the U.S., as well as individual smoking victims.

Flickr Photo by: daubiwan

STORY WRITTEN BY: SATURN DE LOS ANGELES