In August 2022, 11 individuals in Ontario experienced symptoms consistent with aconitine poisoning after consuming a restaurant meal. Local, provincial, and federal public health partners investigated, and galanga (sand ginger) powder containing aconitine toxin was identified as the source of the illnesses.

Dr. Barry Pakes is a Public Health specialist physician currently serving as Medical Officer of Health at York Region Public Health. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, and Program Director of the Public Health and Preventive Medicine Residency program at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. He has also worked clinically in primary care and emergency medicine in a variety of urban and rural settings. Dr. Pakes has degrees from Harvard, McGill and UofT, including a PhD in Public Health Ethics. His other recent public health leadership roles include Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Health in Nunavut, and Associate Medical Officer of Health in Middlesex London Health Unit, Halton Region and Peel Region.

Richard Wootton is the Team Leader of Health Canada’s Surveillance and Coordination Unit which collaborates with Canadian Poison Centres and P/T partners to aggregate, analyze and interpret pan-Canadian poison centre data. In Richard’s capacity as the SCU Team Leader and as a Collaboration Centre Manager for Toxicovigilance Canada Network he is committed to fostering collaboration in detection and management of toxic exposure events of public health concern. Internationally Richard has also supported the World Health Organization as a primary contributing author to the 2021  Guidelines for establishing a Poison Centre. Specifically he focused on Chapter 5: Toxicovigilance and prevention in poisoning, which details the role of poison centres in toxicovigilance, the requirements and recommendations to support toxicovigilance and the importance of collaborative networks in advancing toxicovigilance activities. Prior to joining Health Canada, Richard was the Course Director of the National First Responder Training Program on Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive events and Instructor of Emergency Management for Public Safety Canada. He also served as a regular force infantry officer in the Canadian Armed Forces.

Ashley Kerr is a Senior Epidemiologist with the Outbreak Management Division (OMD) at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Prior to joining in 2013, she supported various epidemiological studies under the Public Health Risk Sciences Division with the National Microbiology Laboratory while completing an MSc in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Guelph. As an epidemiologist with PHAC, Ashley’s roles and responsibilities involve frequent collaboration with federal, provincial and territorial partners, detecting and responding to multi-jurisdictional enteric outbreaks.

Katharine (Kate) Fagan-Garcia is an Acting Senior Epidemiologist with the Outbreak Management Division (OMD) at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). She is a graduate of the Canadian Field Epidemiology Program (2020-2022), where she worked with the Policy Integration and Zoonoses Division (PIZD) at PHAC. Prior to this, Kate completed an MSc in Virology at the University of Alberta and an MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and worked in an interdisciplinary public health research group at the University of Alberta. In addition to Kate’s roles in activities related to response to multi-jurisdictional enteric outbreaks, she also supports ongoing projects involving enteric zoonoses.

Dr. Curtis Oleschuk is a Forensic Toxicologist and Clinical Biochemist at Kingston Health Sciences and is an Assistant Professor at Queen’s University. This broad perspective in Toxicology testing has afforded Dr. Oleschuk the opportunity to co-chair the Toxicology Laboratory Reference Network. Within this role, it has been the approach to work with colleagues across Canada in collaborative measures to help inform in toxicology testing.

Dr. Margaret Thompson is trained as an Emergency Physician and has been working continuously in academic & rural emergencies for ~ 40 years. From 2001, she has also been the Medical Director of the now Ontario, Manitoba & Nunavut Poison Centres having received her toxicology training through the American  College of Medical Toxicology. She is the Past President of the Canadian Association of Poison Centres & Clinical Toxicology effective October 1, 2023.