Health minister declines to speak on Winnipeg lab dismissals

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This article was published 22/07/2021 (1253 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE day before she was scheduled to visit the National Microbiology Lab, Canada’s health minister declined to comment on the high-profile firings of two scientists.

The federal government is arguing disclosure of documents about the firings could be harmful to national security, and Health Minister Patty Hajdu indirectly echoed that sentiment during a stop Thursday in Winnipeg.

Renowned Ebola researcher Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng were escorted out of the Arlington Street lab, Canada’s highest security-clearance laboratory, in July 2019, and were fired in January 2021.

Asked if she thinks Canadians are owed answers about the dismissals, Hajdu responded by thanking lab employees for their contributions to COVID-19 testing.

“I think Canadians expect us to have the capacity to do cutting-edge research in Canada that leads to the kinds of solutions to public health threats like COVID-19 whenever they arise,” she said, saying she is scheduled to visit the Winnipeg lab today.

“The lab has provided Canadians incredible service by not only developing the (COVID-19 PCR) test, but providing overflow capacity to test positive cases, by providing a space for research. We also have to take national security issues seriously, and so I can’t comment about the particular case, but I will say that Canadians can be confident that we will never put national security of Canadians at risk and we’ll continue to take appropriate actions in that space as well.”

The RCMP is investigating circumstances surrounding the scientists’ firing. The Globe and Mail reported the investigation pertains to whether the couple passed on Canadian intellectual property to China.

— with files from The Canadian Press and Dylan Robertson

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay