Mohawk tobacco distributor sues to challenge Quebecs tax law

Businessman Robbie Dickson from Kahnawake Mohawk Territory is suing Revenu Québec and Quebec’s Attorney General alleging a “campaign of unconstitutional searches and seizures of [his] property, in clear breach of [his] Aboriginal and Treaty rights to trade tobacco.” Dickson is the proprietor of Rainbow Distribution Company, which legal documents describe as “a wholly First Nations-owned” company manufacturing and selling tobacco products within First Nations communities. Rainbow Distribution operates in Kahnawake, with the support of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake and sells its products to “Native Reserves/Territories” across Canada,” according to the statement of claimed filed in the civil division of Québec Superior Court on September 16. According to court documents, Dickson alleges his company was targeted by Quebec beginning in August of 2024. At that time, a Rainbow Distribution vehicle was stopped and searched by Quebec provincial police the Sûreté du Québec, which resulted in the seizure both of a delivery van and a shipment of tobacco products headed to Listiguj Mi’kmaq First Nation in the east of Quebec. A total of six seizures of Rainbow Distribution products and vehicles occurred between August of 2024 and August of 2025 and the province laid fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars under the provincial Tobacco Tax Act. None of the allegations have been tested in court. Quebec has not filed a statement of defence as of the publishing of this article. Read more: Kahnawake developing own tobacco code Police target contraband tobacco, drugs and money laundering in mass arrests in Quebec and Ontario Dickson and Rainbow Distribution’s lawsuit targets the Tobacco Tax Act as “written and passed into law [in a way that] infringes on their constitutionally protected Indigenous and treaty rights under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.” Referring to an earlier federal judgment in the case of R. v. Montour and White, 2023, the lawsuit argues the Québec Superior Court has already “held that members of the Mohawks of Kahnawake are entitled to exercise their right to trade tobacco, both as an inherent Aboriginal right, and as a Treaty right recognized pursuant to the Covenant Chain of Friendship” (a series of 17th and 18th century military and trade alliances between the British Crown and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy). The Montour decision is currently headed for an appeal, though the lawsuit argues its decision remains binding until an appeals court has reversed it. On top of the Montour decision, the lawsuit argues, Dickson and Rainbow’s defence also rests on Québec’s Superior Court decision in HMK v. Logan Kane et al. That case found the Montour decision held until it had been successfully appealed. Like Montour, Kane is also slated to be challenged in the Court of Appeals. The lawsuit invokes the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which it argues provides a series of robust guarantees protecting Nation-to-Nation trade, as well as provisions for other economic development, by First Peoples. The document stresses that Justice Sophie Bourque, in her Montour ruling, found UNDRIP’s right to “freely pursue economic development” extended specifically to the right to trade in tobacco. Above all, the lawsuit argues, Dickson and Rainbow Distribution wish to see a judgement that determines whether or not Quebec’s Tobacco Tax Act can be applied to their commercial activities. They also seek Court confirmation that “their right to trade and transport tobacco with other Indigenous communities, including communities located outside of Québec […] is constitutionally protected.” Dickson and Rainbow Distribution are seeking a variety of damages. They argue they have suffered reputational injury by being unfairly tied to organized crime, and say the Quebec’s actions have given the public at large “a false perception of illegality or wrongdoing” by the plaintiffs. They’re seeking a total $8.1-million in damages, broken down into $2-million to recuperate economic losses from seizures, $3-million in lost business opportunities, and $3-million in punitive damages, as well as $50,000 for reputational damages and $50,000 for moral damages. As well, the lawsuit requests the suspension of 11 sections of Quebec’s Tobacco Tax Act. Continue Reading