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The proposed warnings have now been approved by Parliament, with minor modifications. The text of the regulations and of the warnings, as well as images (see “source documents”) of all the warnings, are available at Health Canada's Bureau of Tobacco Control.
 To get an idea of what the new packages look like now that they have hit the shelves, check out our health warnings example page.
Jan. 18th, 2000 — The federal government will move tomorrow to unveil a new warning system for cigarette packs, the Globe and Mail and La Presse reported this morning.
Assuming these reports are accurate, Allan Rock will thus fulfil his promise, made during last year's National Non-Smoking Week, to go ahead with regulations under Bill C-71 and provide more informative warnings on cigarette packs.
The present warnings on cigarette packs are slightly modified versions of those imposed under previous legislation, the Tobacco Products Control Act (TPCA). The tobacco industry successfully went to court and had the TPCA gutted in 1995. One of the main arguments used was that the warnings should be attributed to Health Canada, rather than put on packs without any attribution.
Despite winning that round in court, the industry has chosen to leave warnings on packs. This is likely because of a fear of increasing their possible liability to lawsuits if they take the warnings off.
The new warnings, according to media reports, will be close to those proposed by the National “Tobacco OR Kids” Campaign, of which NSRA is a leading member. So expect colour photos and information on tobacco-caused diseases not previously mentioned on packs.
Other information:
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