--British Columbia put in a statute called the Tobacco Damages and Health Care Cost Recovery Act. Imperial Tobacco took them to court, and it went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that provinces and the federal government can put in retroactive legislation. In this case, they put in legislation to cover the costs of past, current, and future damages. And they didn't have to do it on an individual by individual basis; they did it on a gross basis, looking at the amount of health care funds that were going to be required to cover the costs of people who were affected with illnesses due to smoking.
On November 30th, 2010. See this statement in context.