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MONTREAL — The Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health said Monday that smokers who won a recent court victory are being denied justice after an Ontario judge granted cigarette maker JTI-Macdonald Corp. protection from its creditors last week.

JTI-Macdonald was among three companies that lost in the Quebec Court of Appeal March 1. The court upheld a landmark judgment ordering them to pay billions of dollars in damages to Quebec smokers. Now that JTI-Macdonald is under creditor protection, however, the company will not have to disperse any funds to tobacco victims for now.

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The Ontario Superior Court decision suspends legal proceedings against all three companies until April 5, even though only JTI-Macdonald sought protection from creditors. Benson & Hedges and Imperial Tobacco made no such request.

The Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health led two class actions against the companies and won in 2015, when Quebec Superior Court Justice Brian Riordan ordered the companies to make payments of more than $15-billion to smokers who either fell ill or were addicted. At the time, the ruling was believed to be the biggest class action award in Canadian history.