One of Canada's largest breweries is in damage control after the 40-year-old Toronto actor who played a Scottish spokesman for Alexander Keith's beer was charged with several counts of possessing child pornography.

Robert Norman Smith, who is best known as the mutton-chopped, loudmouth Scotsman who praises Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale as "the pride of Nova Scotia" in television commercials, was charged Wednesday after Toronto police searched his home on a warrant Tuesday.

Det. Const. Eduardo Dizon told the Toronto Star the charges stem from an ongoing undercover investigation that has already resulted in charges against another man.

Police allege that a preliminary investigation of computers found a collection of more than 1,000 electronic files, including movies and images, which was available to others online.

Some of those images involve children as young as 12 months old engaged in sexual activity, police allege.

Dizon said the images are graphic in nature, "to the extent that the average person walking on the street would turn away immediately."

Labatt, which owns the specialty brand, said it will terminate its relationship with the actor and scrap the advertising campaign.

"When it was confirmed that this was the actor in question, we very quickly and swiftly made the decision," Jean Lepine, brewery spokesman told CTV.

Smith, who was released on $25,000 bail after a court appearance yesterday, is charged with two counts of possessing child pornography and one count of making child pornography available.

Earlier this month, police laid similar charges against Robert Alexander Hagon, 22 of Toronto as part of the same investigation.

Smith, who is married and the father of two children, is expected to be back in court on March 17.

With a report from CTV'S John Vennavally-Rao