Parliamentary committee agrees to take on probe of Winnipeg lab scandal
A parliamentary commit‐ tee has agreed to question key witnesses about how two scientists studying deadly viruses at a special lab in Winnipeg were able to work closely and covertly with China.
Conservative MP Michael Chong brought forward a motion to the Canada-China committee Tuesday morning to study the recent release of federal documents related to the dismissal of two scien‐ tists - Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng from the National Microbi‐ ology Lab.
As a Level 4 lab, the Win‐ nipeg institution is cleared to work with some of the most dangerous pathogens in the world.
"I think it's really impor‐ tant that the government get its security policies right so that we don't see another na‐ tional security breach like we saw at the Winnipeg lab," Chong said after the commit‐ tee meeting Tuesday.
After a years-long fight over access to information about Qiu and Cheng, the federal government tabled hundreds of documents re‐ lating to the case last month. They showed that the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) first became suspi‐ cious in September 2018 af‐ ter Qiu had been listed as the inventor on a Chinese patent that might have contained scientific information pro‐ duced in Canada.
That triggered a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) review, which ulti‐ mately concluded Qiu had lied and was "intentionally" sharing scientific information and materials with China potentially putting public health in jeopardy.
The intelligence service al‐ so said it believed Cheng was not truthful in his interviews and had worked with a re‐ stricted visitor at PHAC "who is connected to [China's] Peo‐ ple's Liberation Army."
The couple were marched out of the facility in July 2019 and were stripped of their se‐ curity clearances. Their dis‐ missals were announced in January 2021, triggering con‐ cerns about Chinese espi‐ onage and leading to heated demands in Parliament for more information.
"The documents show that a flag went up in Sep‐ tember 2018. We want to un‐ derstand whether or not that was the first red flag that ap‐ peared in the government or if there were earlier red flags that went unheeded and un‐ acted upon," said Chong.
WATCH | Accountability still needed for breaches at Winnipeg lab: Chong
"It took ten months for the government to secure the lab in Winnipeg. Why did it take so long for that to happen? What delayed the the flow of information with‐ in the government, the flow of intelligence within the gov‐ ernment that prevented the lab from being secured earli‐ er?"
As CBC News reported Tuesday, Canada is on the cusp of getting a second Lev‐ el 4 lab. The University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organiza‐ tion (VIDO), home to Canada's Centre for Pandem‐ ic Research, is in the midst of renovations so it can handle human and animal pathogens.
"Surely, before we go down the path of of opening up a second Level 4 lab in Canada, we've got to make sure that processes and pro‐ cedures are in place to pro‐ tect national security," said Chong.
Chong's motion passed unanimously Tuesday with minor tweaks.
The approved motion calls on multiple players to take questions from committee members, including the head of departmental security at PHAC, CSIS director David Vi‐ gneault, the prime minister's national security adviser Nathalie Drouin and mem‐ bers of cabinet, including Health Minister Mark Holland and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc.
The RCMP has been inves‐ tigating Qiu and Cheng since 2019.
According to reporting by The Globe and Mail, Qiu and Cheng are now working in China.