Canada's top court upheld a law limiting tobacco advertising on Thursday, ruling that though the restrictions limited a cigarette firm's right to free speech, the curbs were justified by the need to boost public health.

The nine Supreme Court judges declared that the Tobacco Act, which went into effect in 1997, is constitutional. The law bans tobacco sponsorship, broadcast commercials as well as advertisements aimed at young people; it restricts the way cigarettes are advertised and obliges companies to put large graphic warning labels on cigarette packages.
The tobacco companies had challenged six parts of the law, arguing that the restrictions unfairly infringed their right of free expression. The case pitted Canada's attorney general, six provinces and the Canadian Cancer Society against cigarette manufacturers, JTI-Macdonald Corp., Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., and Rothmans, Benson Hedges Inc.
The tobacco firms argued that the rules, which prohibit targeting of youths, corporate sponsorship, lifestyle advertising that hypes cigarettes as daring or glamorous, as well as potentially false or misleading advertising, were vague and overbroad, and thus unconstitutional. They also complained about the mandatory health warning labels that occupy 50 per cent of tobacco packaging.
However, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that "parliament's objective of combating the promotion of tobacco products by half-truths and by invitation to false inference constitutes a pressing and substantial objective, capable of justifying limits on the right of free expression."