CAN: Sponsorship Issues Re-Considered

David Dingwall, Canada’s minister of health, is reportedly prepared to consider diluting the provisions concerning sponsorship in the draft legislation currently going through parliament. The threatens seriously to curtail tobacco advertising and sponsorship, and thus may provoke the cancellation of tobacco-sponsored sporting events. The Institute of Canadian Advertising, a trade association, has formed the Coalition for Commercial Freedom of Speech to combat the legislation concerned, known as C-71. The ICA states that “our industry cannot tolerate legislation that would be an effective ban on the advertising of a product which can be legally manufactured, distributed, sold and consumed in this country.”