Canada's major tobacco companies yesterday asked a judge for more time to meet Ottawa's requirements for larger health warnings on cigarette packages.
Tobacco-industry lawyers told Quebec Superior Court they can't meet a deadline of Dec. 23, when the bigger warnings -- covering half the package -- are to start appearing on major brands.
Simon Potter, counsel for Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd,
asked Madam Justice Danielle Grenier to postpone the deadline by three or four months.
By that time, Judge Grenier is scheduled to start hearing the main case: the tobacco firms' attack on the constitutionality of the law adopted by the House of Commons this past June.