Canada high court upholds constitutionality of tobacco damages recovery law News
Canada high court upholds constitutionality of tobacco damages recovery law

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Canada [official website] ruled [judgment] unanimously Thursday that provincial governments can pass laws to recover health care costs incurred in taking care of people sickened by smoking. Canadian tobacco companies had challenged the constitutionality of the 1998 Tobacco Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act [text] which authorized British Columbia to seek damages against the companies for both past harm and future health complications. Canadian anti-tobacco activists hope that other provinces use the BC legislation as a model for future recovery actions against the tobacco industry. The Toronto Globe and Mail has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.