Toronto DNA lab trashed some prenatal paternity samples without testing them, ex-employee alleges
CBC
A former employee of a Toronto DNA laboratory says he saw a Viaguard Accu-Metrics manager — who is now a convicted fraudster — discard some samples sent by customers before they were ever tested.
A CBC News investigation previously revealed that Accu-Metrics sold prenatal paternity testing services around the world for about a decade, knowing its results routinely identified the wrong biological fathers.
Now, a former employee has stepped forward, saying he witnessed Kyle Tsui toss some samples sent by prenatal paternity testing customers into a garbage bin behind the laboratory's building.
None of these allegations have been proven in court. CBC News agreed to grant the former employee anonymity due to the impact revealing his name could have on his current employment.
Tsui was Accu-Metrics's technical manager and oversaw sample collection. In September, he was sentenced to 41 months in a U.S. prison for running a separate fraudulent company on the side that claimed to test for hundreds of food allergies using just a small hair sample. Tsui admitted to tossing out those customers' samples without ever testing them.
There is no established connection between Tsui's food sensitivity scam company and Accu-Metrics.
The new findings in CBC News's ongoing investigation are featured in the new CBC News podcast, Bad Results, which launched Oct. 28.
Accu-Metrics operated various online storefronts under names like Paternity Depot and Prenatal Paternities Inc. These websites targeted customers in the U.S., Australia and the U.K. It began offering prenatal paternity services in about 2010 and stopped sometime in 2021.
The former Accu-Metrics employee told CBC's Bad Results that customer packages containing saliva and blood samples would be processed by employees working on the company's main floor. They would input information into a system, and then place the sample packages into a container.
"That container was supposedly supposed to go to the lab downstairs, but … they never did," said the former worker.
"I would always take all of them to Kyle. And then one day, I noticed that he was just throwing them in the bin.… I saw Kyle just throwing it in the trash outside."
It remains unclear how often customer prenatal paternity samples were thrown out during the about 10 years that Accu-Metrics sold this type of testing service. The company offered prenatal testing services from 2010 until sometime in 2021, a CBC News investigation has found.
Direct-to-consumer DNA laboratories like Accu-Metrics operate in a regulatory black hole in Canada. Health Canada told CBC the matter was the provinces' responsibility. But provincial health authorities told CBC it was up to Ottawa to regulate these types of businesses.
CBC News interviewed dozens of individuals for the Bad Results podcast whose said their lives were devastated by incorrect prenatal paternity results from Accu-Metrics.
A holiday event that began in 2020 during the pandemic with three floats on pickup trucks has now become one of Kelowna’s big winter events, drawing thousands to the city’s downtown core.
WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse.
It’s been hard to keep track of how many legal challenges and active court proceedings the United Conservative government has tried to quash or pre-emptively block in the last six weeks, but let’s try to tally:
Margaret Walker, the emcee of a Waterloo vigil commemorating the victims of the Montreal massacre, doesn't feel enough is being done to reflect on the killings and address gender-based violence.
The P.E.I. Humane Society says it is doing far more fundraising than it used to, and rising expenses — including the cost of animal medications — are a big reason why.
Ottawa is staring down a court-ordered deadline to submit a new plan to reform the on-reserve child welfare system, as a group of First Nations leaders and children’s advocates prepare a competing proposal.
An underpass revitalization project that was meant to pay tribute to the people of Parkdale has instead deteriorated into “a garbage dump,” according to nearby residents.
A young man has been charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm after a fire at a frat party near Western University that injured five sorority sisters, including two seriously, late Tuesday night.
The massive deal to combine one of Hollywood's oldest studios with a streaming giant hasn't even been approved yet, but it's already riling multiple related industries and politicians concerned about monopolies and media concentration.
Mi'kmaq chiefs and a former Nova Scotia justice minister are criticizing the provincial government for directing police to crack down on illegal cannabis, saying the order undermines relations with Indigenous Peoples.
For years, there has been “glaring inequity” in the way the province has allocated the millions of dollars in its county roads budget, according to Department of Transportation Minister Chuck Chiasson.
Six months after passing a law aimed at making it easier for new grocery stores to open, Manitoba's premier says lower grocery bills could be on the horizon.
Timothy Smith was acting in self-defence when he punched Landon Waddell, and shouldn't be found guilty of manslaughter, his lawyer says.