Canada-China relations committee questions witnesses on Winnipeg lab intelligence breach

Federal Health Minister Mark Holland suggested on Monday that there are gaps in the early stages of screening scientists at secret-level facilities such as the National Microbiology Lab (NML) in Winnipeg. 

Holland told the House of Commons special committee on Canada-China relations there is a "responsibility of those individuals to disclose their engagements and affiliations." 

He added: "It is possible to lie and create that space to propagate misinformation and that was the case unfortunately," referring to the case of Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng, who were escorted out of the NML in July 2019, and later had their security clearances revoked. They were officially dismissed in January 2021.

The committee was on Monday questioning key witnesses after studying the release of federal documents related to their dismissals. 

As a Level 4 lab, the NML is equipped to work with the most serious and deadly human and animal diseases, including pathogens like Ebola, which require the highest level of containment. 

According to documents tabled by the federal government, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had concluded in 2020 Qiu was "intentionally" sharing scientific information and materials with China — potentially putting people's health in jeopardy.

Documents disclosed earlier from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) show its National Security Management Division was advised in September 2018 that Qiu had been listed as the inventor on a Chinese patent that might have contained scientific information produced at the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health (CSCHAH) in Winnipeg — and that she shared that data without authority.

Qiu, then head of vaccines and antivirals with the CSCHAH's zoonotic diseases and special pathogens division, told investigators at the time she didn't know her name was on the patent.

According to a report by The Globe and Mail, Qiu and Cheng are now working in China.

Holland called their actions "reprehensible" and "deeply disturbing."

"In light of this, scientists understand that they can't be taken by their word," Holland said. "We have to question the relationships that they have and probe into their lives in a way that would have been entirely inappropriate and crazy before."

Heather Jeffrey, president of the PHAC, said that since the breach, the NLA had enhanced its physical security measures, updated its policies on affiliations and collaborations with academic and health organizations, and has created a new student hiring policy. 

The responsibility of granting or revoking access to sites such as the NLA rests with the deputy head of an organization, which in the PHAC's case would correspond to its president or "deputy president," CSIS director David Vigneault confirmed at the meeting Monday. 

Vigneault said that China is taking an institutional approach to espionage through the Thousand Talents program — a government-led program in China to recruit science and technology experts overseas. Qiu applied to it with the aim of helping the People's Republic of China build up its infectious disease research.