Canada tobacco lawsuit still not paid out 5 years later [Video]

In the span of a few short years, Jean-Luc Duval lost two of the most important people in his life to lung cancer.

His wife Monique was diagnosed on her birthday and died on July 3, 2005 – the couple’s 40th wedding anniversary. Months of debilitating chemotherapy treatments couldn’t stop the disease, which had quietly spread and taken root in her digestive system.

Duval then reconnected with a former co-worker, and as they grew closer, they decided to live together as companions in his home in Repentigny, a suburb of Montreal. One night, she started coughing violently and he took her to the emergency room. Doctors found she had cancer in both lungs, and she died within five months.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

Both women had been smokers, though they had quit years earlier. Duval, too, had smoked for …