Liberals keeping us in the dark
Ethics committee vetoes inquiry into two scientists
Who calls the shots in Canada, Ottawa or Beijing? It's becoming harder to tell, especially after this week's shameful performance by the House of Commons Ethics Committee.
On Monday, the Liberal-dominated committee shut down an emergency request by Conservative MP Michael Chong to investigate the firing of two Chinese scientists, Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng, at the Winnipeg National Microbiology Laboratory in 2021. Chong made the request after the government released 600 pages of documents revealing that Qiu and Cheng had basically been spying for the People's Republic of China (PRC), developing “deep, co-operative relationships” with institutions there and transferring Canadian scientific knowledge and materials to the Chinese government.
Last week, Health Minister Mark Holland acknowledged that the documents reveal a “lax adherence to security protocols.” Chong's motion sought to find out who knew what, and when, about this scandal, to determine why security breaches and covert operations were not caught earlier.
And Canadians deserve answers. When the story broke in 2021, the Liberals refused to release the documents. Now that they have, we know that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had been monitoring the scientists for years. CSIS warned that Qiu was collaborating with China to increase the “gain of function” of some of the deadliest pathogens on Earth. Qiu even transferred the Ebola genetic sequence to China, leading CSIS to label her a threat to Canadians' health. According to reporting by investigative journalist Sam Cooper, she also led a “synthetic bat filovirus” project with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the same lab that the FBI has concluded is a “likely source” of the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is a grave and serious matter,” Chong told the committee. “These Winnipeg lab breaches are part of a broader pattern by this government of neglecting Canada's national security.”
The Liberals' response? MP Iqra Khalid dismissed the idea, saying “It's not necessary, it's not urgent.”
Really? In this time of rising geopolitical instability, it's hard to think of anything that is more necessary, or urgent, than national security. Europe is girding for war with Russia while Taiwan is bracing for potential invasion by China. Donald Trump may return to the White House and threatens to leave NATO members who don't “pay up” to the mercy of Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, Israel is still fighting to eradicate Hamas after the horrors of Oct. 7, which the terror group has vowed to repeat.
In other words, the world is becoming an increasingly hostile place. And lest politicians think Canadians haven't noticed, they should think again. A recent Angus Reid poll shows that 29 per cent of Canadians now say military preparedness and Canada's place on the world stage is their top political priority, up from 12 per cent a decade ago. Fifty-three per cent say Canada should increase its defence spending level to the NATO benchmark of two per cent or beyond. An EKOS poll found that 71 per cent believe that Canada is not taken seriously by other countries on international defence and security issues and one in three think our allies see us as “weak” on defence.
Either the Liberals don't get it, or they get it far too well. For the past year, they have been dodging public scrutiny on China's involvement in multiple facets of Canadian life, from elections to business to security. While they were finally forced to call a public inquiry into electoral interference this year, its chair, Justice Marie -Josée Hogue, granted standing to politicians accused of holding China's interests above Canada's. In response, several pro-democracy groups have withdrawn, fearing for the safety of their members — and exposing the inquiry for what it is, a sham.
The government may perceive the defeat of Chong's ethics committee motion as a procedural victory, but it's a pyrrhic one at best. It telegraphs to both our allies and adversaries that Canada does not take security threats seriously — or worse yet, that its government does not want to. And it tells Canadians that their priorities don't matter — despite the dire consequences.