Cannabis plants are shown during the grand opening event for the CannTrust Niagara Greenhouse Facility in Fenwick, Ont., on Tuesday, June 26, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin
TORONTO – A former director of quality and compliance at CannTrust Holdings Inc. says he warned the company’s chief executive that Health Canada could levy penalties if the firm grew pot in unlicensed rooms at its Niagara, Ont. facility.
Graham Lee says he told Peter Aceto he wasn’t sure what the exact consequences could be, but knew they were possible because Health Canada had previously issued warning letters and handed out penalties.
For example, Lee said Health Canada checked CannTrust’s inventory every day after it discovered the company was using a storage facility at its Vaughan, Ont. location contrary to licensing.
Lee’s comments were made at the Old City Hall courthouse in Toronto, where the Ontario Securities Commission is working to prove Aceto and other execs are guilty of several offences related to unlicensed growing at the Niagara facility.
Aceto, former CannTrust chairman Eric Paul and former vice-chairman Mark Litwin have pleaded not guilty to fraud and authorizing, permitting or acquiescing in the commission of an offence.
Litwin and Paul are also facing insider trading charges, and Litwin and Aceto are charged with making a false prospectus and false preliminary prospectus.
The men no longer work for CannTrust and their lawyers are arguing their clients are all innocent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2022.
