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The chief executive of CannTrust Holdings Inc. appeared in a promotional video filmed directly outside an unlicensed cannabis grow room at the company’s Pelham, Ont., facility in early 2019, according to a former employee who was present when the video was shot.

The video, which was published by CannTrust’s YouTube account on Feb. 27, 2019, shows company CEO Peter Aceto chatting with a plant production manager outside a room full of cannabis plants. The plants can be clearly seen through what appears to be a plastic wall with metal hinges — on one occasion, the production manager gestures towards the plants in the grow room to emphasize a point.

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Five former employees who spoke to the Post identified the room in the video as RG8 or Range 8, noting that its plastic walls were a distinguishing feature. Three of those employees worked in the room as grow technicians between October 2018 and April 2019, the six-month period during which CannTrust has acknowledged it was cultivating unlicensed cannabis. Two of the employees saw the video being filmed in early 2019.

“I knew RG8 was not licensed because they used to announce if a room came online,” said one of the former employees, whose role was supervising grow technicians in the facility. “The thing that blew my mind was when Aceto was standing right in front of RG8 filming that video, doing an interview. That was way before the room became legal.”