Morning Update: What the algorithm missed
Good morning. I’m Grant Robertson, an investigative reporter at The Globe. My colleague Kathryn Blaze Baum and I spent the past four months digging into Canada’s food-safety system, and how a risk-assessment algorithm failed to prevent this summer’s deadly listeria outbreak. More on that below, along with a forest excursion for fungi and a look at the week ahead. But first:
Cale Sampson holds a photograph of his late mother, Muriel, in the empty downstairs apartment where she lived prior to her death from listeriosis.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
The revelation, when it happened, was surprising. And disturbing.
Soon after this summer’s deadly listeria outbreak involving plant-based milks became known, some unsettling questions began to emerge.
After three people had died, federal public health officials said they had traced the problem to a production facility in Pickering, Ont. The recall was for millions of alternative-milk products sold under the Silk and Great Value brands, including almond and coconut milk.
But when health officials conducted genome sequencing on the culprit bacteria, they found the same genetically related strain had caused illnesses as far back as August, 2023.
According to food-safety experts, that meant for 11 months, a listeria problem existed inside the facility.
Open this photo in gallery:A Joriki Beverages Inc. production facility in Pickering, Ont.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
When I ran into Kathryn in the newsroom one day this fall, she had the same thought: Something had gone wrong here. So, we delved into mountains of documents, began assembling a network of sources and attempted to untangle this web.
But how could the problem go that long without being detected? Reading through hundreds of pages of federal documents that lay out Canada’s food-safety oversight system, two things are clear: Companies are supposed to be keeping a watchful eye in their facilities for listeria, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is supposed to be keeping a watchful eye on them.
However, sources inside the government began telling me a serious breakdown had occurred at the federal level. The puzzle was incomplete, but every piece of back-channel information helped form a clearer picture, which eventually led to one critical revelation the government acknowledged in October, in response to our questions: The Pickering plant hadn’t been inspected for listeria. As the head of the union representing CFIA inspectors later told me: “We never checked that plant. The algorithm didn’t require us to go in.”
The algorithm? Never did we think the trail of reporting would lead us there. But in a revamp of food-safety oversight in Canada, the CFIA had moved to a system where risk-based calculations determined which plants are inspected and – conversely – which facilities get less attention, or none at all. It was a recipe for a problem, CFIA inspectors said.
Open this photo in gallery:Sanniah Jabeen and her husband lost their son, whom they named Waleed, in December of 2023, at 18 weeks, after Sanniah became extremely ill with what was later diagnosed as listeriosis.Chloe Ellingson/The Globe and Mail
At its heart, this is a story about lapses in oversight that affect all Canadians. It’s also about the victims: the son whose 76-year-old mother died of listeriosis; the woman who believes her miscarriage was a result of the oat milk she drank; the mother who feared for her seven-year-old daughter’s life.
The two questions I get asked most as an investigative reporter are, where do you get your ideas from, and how long does it take to write a story? The first answer is simple: Whenever something goes wrong and there’s no transparency, that’s usually the genesis.
The second answer is more complex. How long a story takes to complete is sometimes out of the reporter’s hands. Though sources behind the scenes were helpful in providing crucial information on this investigation, no CFIA official would agree to an interview, only e-mailed responses. Same-day answers were never possible. And if the replies were unclear, or lacked detail, the need for further questions only led to more delays.
Open this photo in gallery:The Globe and Mail
With the department declining all in-person or telephone interviews on this subject, The Globe posed more than 90 questions to the CFIA over the span of two months – a process that is continuing even as you read this.
But this investigation goes beyond a single product recall. It’s about gaps in a system that Canadians rely on to keep them safe. And what Cale Sampson, whose mother died this summer in Toronto, wants for her legacy: answers. Not just for himself, but for others across the country.
The Shot‘Newfoundland is in a unique position for fungi’Open this photo in gallery:
Dr. Andrus Voitk, a retired surgeon, founder of Foray NL, and the author of A Little Illustrated Book of Common Mushrooms, at the Salmonier Nature Reserve on the Avalon Peninsula.Johnny C.Y. Lam/The Globe and Mail
Nearly 25 years ago, when Dr. Andrus Voitk had just retired, he sent photos of mushrooms to his cousin, a mycologist, in Estonia. Her colleagues were so intrigued that things snowballed into something bigger, “before we knew it, the first Foray was born,” he said. Now the forest excursions in Newfoundland unite fans of fungi with the experts who document and preserve natural heritage.
The WeekWhat we’re followingToday: B.C.’s federal by-election in the riding of Cloverdale-Langley City.
Today: In Germany, a no-confidence vote in the government could pave the way for a February snap election.
Tomorrow: The last scheduled sitting day of the House of Commons, when we’re expected to see the (late) fall economic statement.
Wednesday: Voter registration cards are not being mailed out because of the Canada Post strike for the provincial by-election in Lethbridge, Alta.
Friday: A verdict is expected in France’s landmark rape trial of Gisèle Pelicot.
