CSIS linked to removal of scientists from National Microbiology Lab

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This article was published 12/05/2021 (1324 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — As MPs push to learn why two Chinese-born researchers were escorted out of the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, reports suggest Canada’s spy agency first raised concerns about the ousted couple.

In July 2019, renowned Ebola researcher Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Chang, were removed from the Arlington Street lab and later terminated by the Public Health Agency of Canada, which has only ever cited an “administrative matter” involving “possible policy breaches.”

The RCMP is investigating Qiu and Chang, but neither have been charged.

Months before her ouster, Qiu had sent samples of Ebola and Henipah viruses to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. Sources in Winnipeg have told the Free Press this was done without adequate paperwork, an allegation Public Health has denied.

The lack of any clear explanation has fuelled conspiracy theories around the novel coronavirus, which gained prominence in late 2019 in the city of Wuhan, but officials have found no credible link with that city’s lab.

On Wednesday, the Globe and Mail reported two sources saying CSIS had first tipped off Public Health about the pair, raising concerns about their contacts in China and the possible transfer of intellectual property.

The Globe, which did not name the sources, reported the decision to pull the couple’s security clearance came at the suggestion of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Meanwhile, members of Parliament are pushing Public Health to be more open about why the couple were let go, with the agency insisting for months it cannot discuss personnel matters.

At a Monday meeting, Liberal MPs helped initiate a request to have documents related to the incident sent in an uncensored form to the House of Commons law clerk, who would decide which parts must be kept secret.

This is similar to the protocol used a decade ago, in accessing documents with sensitive information about the treatment of Afghanistan detainees.

So far, the public service has instead sent hundreds of pages of overwhelmingly censored documents to the House special committee on Canada-China Relations, saying it is bound by rules respecting employee privacy.

“As public servants, we’re bound by law to keep confidential information confidential,” Public Health bureaucratic head Iain Stewart told the committee Monday.

“We are disclosing as much as we can within the limits of the law.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca