The Toronto Globe and Mail has smoked out a phony PR executive and other falsehoods at medical marijuana purveyor CEN Biotech, which has lost its second PR firm in a month.

cenThe paper reported today that a Dec. 21 press release criticizing Globe and Mail coverage of CEN quoted internal PR head Isak Weber, an individual who does not exist at the company.

The made-up PR guru, as well as other misrepresentations found in an earlier Globe and Mail investigation into the company, sparked its second outside PR firm, Pathway Group, to part with the client last week. New York-based 5WPR split with CEN at the end of 2014, reportedly after the company issued press releases under the PR firms name without authorization.

The apocryphal December release sent through Marketwired included a Q&A interview with CEN's "internal public relations spokesperson, Isak Weber," refuting Globe and Mail coverage of the company as "misleading" and "grossly misstated."

Pressed by the newspaper about Weber, CEN CEO Bill Chaaban called the name a "nom-de-plum," likening the device to executives who use speechwriters or corporate mascots like Ronald McDonald or Mr. Clean.

The newspaper, questioning the relatively unknown companies gunning for federal dollars in Canada's burgeoning medical marijuana field, reported that CEN made false claims about its license status with the Canadian healthcare service.