[LINK] "First Nations set to battle Ottawa over contraband cigarettes"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Allan Woods reports on an issue I'm of two minds about. On the one hand, First Nations self-rule and respect for treaties matter. On the other, there are undeniable public health elements here.

Bill C-10, which took effect in April, targets individuals caught producing, transporting or selling large quantities of raw tobacco leaves or manufactured cigarettes on which a government tax has not been paid.

[. . .]

Police define contraband tobacco as products such as raw leaves smuggled into Canada, counterfeit cigarettes that arrive from overseas and tobacco produced for sale on First Nations territory that is sold tax-free to non-natives.

Intended to hamper a black market worth billions of dollars each year, natives fear the law will single them out for enforcement. They warn of job losses, economic decline and the criminalization of a people who have been growing and trading tobacco wherever and with whomever they please.

“This is our own product. We’d like to know where in history we gave up the right to conduct business and trade with that specific product,” said Chief Gina Deer, a member of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, south of Montreal.

Both Kahnawake and the Six Nations First Nation near Brantford, Ont., are expected to formally adopt their own tobacco laws as early as August in a bid to regulate cigarette production and sales, collect their own revenues from the smokes and stave off interference from non-native police and governments.