MPs criticize the health service over dismissed scientists from the National Microbiology Lab

Federal officials in charge of the National Microbiology Lab on Friday defended the Winnipeg institute’s safety protocols against MPs’ accusations of bureaucratic incompetence.

“We acted as quickly as possible given the information available,” Heather Jeffrey, head of the Public Health Agency of Canada, said Friday.

She testified before the Canada-China Relations Committee, which was investigating Ottawa’s handling of two researchers at the Winnipeg lab who left Canada after their security clearances were revoked amid questions about their loyalty and possible coercion by Beijing.

Documents filed with parliament in February show that the scientists, Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, downplayed their cooperation with Chinese government agencies before the agency fired them in 2021.

The documents also show that Canada’s security intelligence agency concluded that Qiu repeatedly lied about the extent of her work for Chinese government agencies, and that she refused to admit involvement in various Chinese programs even when presented with evidence .

The spy agency described Qiu as “reckless in her dealings” with various Chinese entities, “particularly in her disregard for proper scientific protocols regarding the transmission of pathogens and in collaborating with institutions whose targets have potentially lethal military applications,” in contrary to Canada’s interests.

The RCMP is conducting a national security investigation, although Qiu and Cheng have not been charged with any criminal charges in connection with the allegations. Jeffrey says both are Canadian citizens and have requested a review of Ottawa’s decision to revoke their security clearances.

On Monday, MPs representing the Conservatives, the Bloc Québécois and even a Liberal questioned officials about why Qiu was allowed to undertake sensitive work while they were under investigation.

“The scientists hid these relationships and even lied about them, and when they were discovered, these scientists were fired,” she testified.

Bloc MP René Villemure told the committee he was “astounded” that no PHAC employees faced the consequences, after Jeffrey suggested only the two scientists had been disciplined.

“Take your pick, was it negligent or incompetent?” Villemure asked.

New processes and policies have been put in place to allow the agency to detect “attempts to disguise collaboration, ties and other motivations as quickly as possible in the future,” Jeffrey said.

Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith repeatedly asked whether these updated protocols would have stopped the unauthorized shipment of Ebola and Henipah viruses to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. She replied that she could not answer a hypothetical question.

Erskine-Smith pressed officials on why Qiu was able to send a package without anyone asking questions, since she was already under investigation at the time.

“How can there possibly be no red flags?” he asked.

Guillaume Poliquin, who took over the Winnipeg lab months after the two scientists were fired, did not admit to any fault in Ottawa’s handling of the situation.

“These were allegations and further investigation was ongoing,” he replied.

Conservative MP Michael Chong said he is hopeful the bureaucrats will follow through on commitments they made in their testimony to give MPs a timeline on when the Cabinet was notified of security breaches at the lab.

“What we are trying to achieve here at this committee is to understand why it took 10 months to secure the laboratory, which seems like an inordinately long period of time,” he said.

MPs need to understand the flow of information and intelligence within the government, Chong said, so that Ottawa can respond much more quickly to similar incidents in the future.

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Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press