Canada's three biggest tobacco companies, all with multinational¹ parents, face C$27.25 billion ($27.43 billion) in damages and penalties as the largest civil lawsuit² in the country's history to go to trial started on Monday.

加拿大史上最大规模的民事诉讼案于本周一开始审理，该国三家最大的跨国烟草公司将面临272.5亿加元（274.3亿美元）的赔偿和处罚。

The companies, Imperial Tobacco Canada, JTI-Macdonald Corp and Rothmans Benson & Hedges, are named in the class action suit by a group of current and former smokers³ in the province of Quebec.

At question in the trial in Quebec Superior Court in Montreal is whether the companies adequately warned smokers of the dangers of cigarettes. It is the first time tobacco companies have gone to trial in a civil suit in Canada.

The plaintiffs（原告） say they were hoodwinked（蒙蔽） into buying an addictive⁴ product and have since developed a range of smoking-related illnesses, including lung cancer and emphysema（肺气肿） .

The tobacco firms say the suits amount to "an opportunistic cash grab" as the risks of smoking have been known for decades.

"Tobacco manufacturers must be held accountable for their actions, and legal proceedings⁵ provide a key opportunity to bring about a fundamental change in this industry's business practices," said the Canadian Cancer Society's Melanie Champagne⁶.

More than 10,000 people die each year in Quebec from causes directly linked to smoking. Quebec's annual healthcare spending on tobacco-related ailments⁷ tops C$1 billion, according to the Canadian Cancer Society.

The lawsuit is the first of a series of multibillion-dollar suits against Canadian tobacco companies. Provincial⁸ governments also plan huge lawsuits⁹ in hopes of recovering billions of healthcare dollars spent to treat the victims of tobacco use.

With tens of millions of pages of documents already exchanged, the Quebec trial could go on for years. The tobacco companies are not scheduled to start to present their evidence until February 2013.

The Canadian government regulates and taxes the tobacco industry, and has imposed graphic¹⁰ warnings on cigarette packages in recent years. Canada also restricts how tobacco is marketed and sold in an effort to dissuade¹¹（劝阻） consumption.