What others are saying about illegal cigarettes

"More than money is at stake here. The networks that distribute untaxed smokes do not ask for proof of age - which legitimate retailers claim they do. Nor are black-market smokes inspected for purity. They might not use the low-ignition-propensity paper the big companies use. The networks might well be peddling drugs or other contraband as well as cigarettes. In short, there’s a social-policy reason to suppress this trade, as well as the fiscal reason."
-- Montreal Gazette, editorial

"The public should be concerned that organized crime groups are using land and waterways adjacent to educational institutions to facilitate their smuggling activities"
-- Michael Harvey, RCMP, Cornwall, Ontario

"Nobody seems to quite want to step out and name this problem for what it is: Cowardice, on the part of politicians, bureaucrats, aboriginal leaders and a provincial police force that will do anything, just about, to avoid enforcing the Criminal Code of Canada on native reserves."
-- Owen Sound Sun Times, editorial

"By offering tobacco products at a better price, smugglers stimulate an underground economy within which its profits could be used to finance illegal activities. These activities [include] the smuggling of drugs and firearms, the financing of terrorism, money laundering, among others."
-- RCMP Intelligence report on Contraband Tobacco, 2008

"A huge proportion of youth are having direct access to contraband, especially in Ontario and Quebec . . . There are remedies that are available that have not yet been implemented. Governments must move forward expeditiously."
-- Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society.

"Producers of the illegal smokes don’t seem to care if they end up in the hands of minors . . . Given the mistreatment of native populations in the past, everyone is sensitive about meddling with affairs on reserves. But in this case, public health risks demand a crackdown."
-- Niagara This Week, editorial

"Nobody knows what’s in these products. There’s no government overseeing. There’s nobody watching. We’re just closing our eyes and now they’re infiltrating the high schools."
-- Dave Bryans, Canadian Convenience Store Association

"The mob is involved with some of the individuals [doing the smuggling]: the Mafia and the Irish mob and the Russian mob and the Chinese mob."
-- Rhonda Kirby, Chief of the Kahnawake First Nation, a major source of illegal cigarettes

"In my four years doing these cases, I have never seen anybody incarcerated for failure to pay a fine [for smuggling]."
-- Ron Turgeon, Cornwall Public Prosecutor

"With [cheap] contraband, there is no incentive to stop [smoking]"
-- Emily Butko, teen representative of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Ontario chapter

"Smokers have to realize that buying illegal smokes isn’t just beating the tax man, it is supporting the dark side of tobacco contraband: the illicit drug trade, gun running and human trafficking. Smuggling is a cancer that eats away at the moral fibre of a community and attracts unsavoury ‘guests.’ Simple fact is, if you buy illegal smokes, you support crime and the criminals."
-- The Cornwall Standard-Freeholder, editorial

"Cheap [contraband] cigarettes entice young people to start smoking and discourage smokers from quitting."
-- Susan Whelan, CEO, Canadian Cancer Society

"It is past time for something more than half measures to attack the problem of tax-free tobacco sales by Six Nations cigarette sellers."
-- Hamilton Spectator, editorial

"Access to cheap contraband cigarettes is threatening to erode all of our past work and threatens the health of our next generation. If the government does not act now, ultimately our children and future generations will pay the heavy price."
-- Dr. Marco Buono, Heart and Stroke Foundation

"Illegal smokes could cause unnecessary deaths and drive up the cost of health care. They also fuel organized crime. Police say a large percentage of the hundreds of millions in lost tax revenue goes straight to criminals who control a big piece of the contraband cigarette market . . . There is really only one option. Governments should apply and uphold the law, not look the other way because it is convenient and avoids controversy."
-- The Peterborough Examiner, editorial

"The black market in cigarettes is growing like a cancer in Canada and having ramifications throughout society. It’s empowering organized crime, draining governments of tax revenue, undermining years of progress on smoking rates and further imperilling the beleaguered corner store."
-- Halifax Chronicle-Herald, editorial