The cocktail party kicked off at 4:30pm on a Saturday in late March, an event held over Zoom and featuring three women, all academics, including two Canadians, bound by friendship and a shared professional interest in the chemical senses, that is, taste (gustation) and smell (olfaction).
Dana Small, a Victoria, B.C. native now at Yale, with a dual professorship in psychology and psychiatry, was engaged in ground-breaking research on the “gut,” and how the modern food environment plays tricks on our system before the pandemic hit. She opted for red wine, as did Theresa White, another foodie/sensory psychology expert at Le Moyne College in upstate New York, while Rachel Herz, the other Canadian, and an adjunct professor at Brown University in Providence, R.I., chose white.
Around the time of the party, reports were starting to surface about a percentage of COVID-19 patients who experienced a profound loss of smell, an aspect of the rapidly advancing global virus the three professors took as a sign, perhaps, that their expertise in all-things olfactory might come in handy.
“I said, ‘We need to come up with a test,’ Small says. “So we started brainstorming.”
Identifying asymptomatic carriers is absolutely critical
What makes COVID-19 especially deadly isn’t the fact that it hangs around on surfaces for a spell, but its prolific transmission rates. It is a 21st century virus that gets around, and a good chunk of its carriers are asymptomatic, meaning they don’t experience a fever, cough – or have difficulty breathing — and instead float through life blissfully oblivious to the risk they pose to others.
“Identifying asymptomatic carriers is absolutely critical in stopping the progression of the pandemic, I believe,” Small says. “So if there is odour loss with some — even if it’s only a small percentage of people — identifying them as carriers would be significant.”
Losing one’s sense of smell isn’t like losing one’s car keys. When the keys go missing, you recognize the loss in an instant. But a person’s sense of smell can slip away quietly, over a period of time, without the person noticing it is going, going, going, until it is effectively gone.
Small and her pals agreed that a simple do-it-at-home sniff test, using common household items, would allow participants — the great mass of us — to start tracking their sense of smell. In this way, an asymptomatic carrier who feels like a million bucks, but notes a diminishing sense of smell one day to the next, could consider quarantining, ASAP, instead of carrying on until their olfactory sense disappears altogether.
Because of the sluggishness of the academic grant application process, Professor Dana Small won’t get funding for her COVID-19 peanut butter test before September.
Courtesy Dana Small
Hence, says Small, the birth of the peanut butter sniff test. Peanut butter, so good on toast, and always a friend to jam, is a North American staple that stimulates the olfactory sense exclusively, unlike, say, ground coffee — a treat to inhale, no doubt — but a fragrance that fires both our sense of smell and the trigeminal nerve governing sensations like “pain and tickle,” which influence how one registers an odour.
As a control on the peanut butter, sniff-test participants are asked to breathe in a snout full of vinegar, another household staple, like coffee, that fires the trigeminal nerve. The big idea? If a subject is registering the vinegar, but the scent of the peanut butter is fading away, they can be confident their sense of smell is decreasing.
“If we find there is a trajectory of diminishing smell over days, we would be able to identify asymptomatic carriers, even before they were conscious of losing their smell,” says Small. “And in those, let’s say, five days, there could otherwise be lots of transmissions.”
The 48-year-old professor, whose favourite scents are cedar forest, patchouli and Vancouver Island campfire, has been circulating the test around Yale and Brown and sending it to family members in B.C. The online survey takes about 30 seconds to complete. It is as easy as smelling an open jar of peanut butter. What is maddening, however, is that because of the sluggishness of the academic grant application process, Small won’t get funding for the test before September.
In other words: a highly regarded academic, who trained at McGill University, and whose star was born 20 years ago after a study involving chocolate and the brain, has a home test ready to go that could save lives, but won’t be saving anybody at least until the fall.
“It is incredibly frustrating,” Small says. “There is a great opportunity here to develop something that could potentially be important — not only for this virus — but for other ones as well.”
Small has been venting her frustrations to friends, family and colleagues for weeks. She adds if there are any philanthropists or other financial high-fliers out there, looking to underwrite a study, and do some good, she would be happy to take their call. Today.
Meantime, she has a grant application to complete, and an unfunded study to circulate that includes herself as a participant. The professor sniffs her peanut butter (crunchy style) at 8:30 am daily. When the urge strikes, she will allow herself to enjoy some of the test material, spread atop a slice of German black bread, with a morning coffee on the side.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. says it has signed a deal that will result in the creation of its first eyewear collection.
The deal announced on Thursday by the Toronto-based luxury apparel company comes in the form of an exclusive, long-term global licensing agreement with Marchon Eyewear Inc.
The terms and value of the agreement were not disclosed, but Marchon produces eyewear for brands including Lacoste, Nike, Calvin Klein, Ferragamo, Longchamp and Zeiss.
Marchon plans to roll out both sunglasses and optical wear under the Canada Goose name next spring, starting in North America.
Canada Goose says the eyewear will be sold through optical retailers, department stores, Canada Goose shops and its website.
Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss told The Canadian Press in August that he envisioned his company eventually expanding into eyewear and luggage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Almost seven years since news broke of an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread across Canada, the saga isn’t over: the Competition Bureau continues to investigate the companies that may have been involved, and two class-action lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the bread price-fixing case.
Oct. 31, 2017: The Competition Bureau says it’s investigating allegations of bread price-fixing and that it was granted search warrants in the case. Several grocers confirm they are co-operating in the probe.
Dec. 19, 2017: Loblaw and George Weston say they participated in an “industry-wide price-fixing arrangement” to raise the price of packaged bread. The companies say they have been co-operating in the Competition Bureau’s investigation since March 2015, when they self-reported to the bureau upon discovering anti-competitive behaviour, and are receiving immunity from prosecution. They announce they are offering $25 gift cards to customers amid the ongoing investigation into alleged bread price-fixing.
Jan. 31, 2018: In court documents, the Competition Bureau says at least $1.50 was added to the price of a loaf of bread between about 2001 and 2016.
Dec. 20, 2019: A class-action lawsuit in a Quebec court against multiple grocers and food companies is certified against a number of companies allegedly involved in bread price-fixing, including Loblaw, George Weston, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, Canada Bread and Giant Tiger (which have all denied involvement, except for Loblaw and George Weston, which later settled with the plaintiffs).
Dec. 31, 2021: A class-action lawsuit in an Ontario court covering all Canadian residents except those in Quebec who bought packaged bread from a company named in the suit is certified against roughly the same group of companies.
June 21, 2023: Bakery giant Canada Bread Co. is fined $50 million after pleading guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act as part of the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation.
Oct. 25 2023: Canada Bread files a statement of defence in the Ontario class action denying participating in the alleged conspiracy and saying any anti-competitive behaviour it participated in was at the direction and to the benefit of its then-majority owner Maple Leaf Foods, which is not a defendant in the case (neither is its current owner Grupo Bimbo). Maple Leaf calls Canada Bread’s accusations “baseless.”
Dec. 20, 2023: Metro files new documents in the Ontario class action accusing Loblaw and its parent company George Weston of conspiring to implicate it in the alleged scheme, denying involvement. Sobeys has made a similar claim. The two companies deny the allegations.
July 25, 2024: Loblaw and George Weston say they agreed to pay a combined $500 million to settle both the Ontario and Quebec class-action lawsuits. Loblaw’s share of the settlement includes a $96-million credit for the gift cards it gave out years earlier.
Sept. 12, 2024: Canada Bread files new documents in Ontario court as part of the class action, claiming Maple Leaf used it as a “shield” to avoid liability in the alleged scheme. Maple Leaf was a majority shareholder of Canada Bread until 2014, and the company claims it’s liable for any price-fixing activity. Maple Leaf refutes the claims.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:MFI, TSX:MRU, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)
TORONTO – TD Bank Group, which is mired in a money laundering scandal in the U.S., says chief executive Bharat Masrani will retire next year.
Masrani, who will retire officially on April 10, 2025, says the bank’s, “anti-money laundering challenges,” took place on his watch and he takes full responsibility.
The bank named Raymond Chun, TD’s group head, Canadian personal banking, as his successor.
As part of a transition plan, Chun will become chief operating officer on Nov. 1 before taking over the top job when Masrani steps down at the bank’s annual meeting next year.
TD also announced that Riaz Ahmed, group head, wholesale banking and president and CEO of TD Securities, will retire at the end of January 2025.
TD has taken billions in charges related to ongoing U.S. investigations into the failure of its anti-money laundering program.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
