A combo of handout images released by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing on April 29, 2010, shows both sides of a new generic cigarette packaging with health warnings taking up 85 per cent of the pack and a minimal border. Cigarette packs sold in Canada are to carry new, similar graphic imagery as of June 19, 2012. Photograph by: Australian government , AFP/Getty Images

OTTAWA - Smokers who get their fix from Canadian tobacco retailers can no longer avoid Ottawa's latest in-your-face effort to convince them to quit.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq says as of today, packages of cigarettes and little cigars sold in Canada must carry large, dramatic anti-smoking images and messages.

The new labelling, which covers 75 per cent of cigarette packages, includes graphic pictures of a cancer-infected mouth and of an emaciated, cancer-stricken Barb Tarbox.

Tarbox was an anti-smoking activist before dying of lung cancer at the age of 42, and her story - among others - is featured in the new packaging.

Statistics Canada says that in 2011, one in five Canadians aged 12 and older - nearly 5.8 million people - smoked on an occasional or a daily basis, down from 25.9 per cent in 2001.

A Canada-wide "quitline" and website address also figure prominently on the new packs, which Aglukkaq says are part of an ongoing federal effort to inform Canadians, particularly young people, about the perils of tobacco use.