Scientist couple who worked at Winnipeg virology lab shared information with Chinese military and Wuhan Institute, Canadian intelligence documents reveal.
Lies and scandal: How two rogue scientists at a secret lab triggered a national security calamity | CBC News | Catharine Tunney:
March 2, 2024 - "The release ... of hundreds of documents related to the dismissal of two scientists — Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng — has pulled back the curtain on an explosive national security probe at the Winnipeg-based National Microbiology Lab, part of the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health (CSCHAH). The investigation — and the fight to make information about the investigation public — took years.
"According to Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) documents, the agency's 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 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, said she didn't know her name was on the patent.... The National Security Management Division also began an investigation into allegations that Cheng also had breached security policies in relation to students under his supervision....
"On July 5, 2019 Qiu and Cheng were told they were subjects of an administrative investigation and ordered to stay home. At that point, their access cards and computer accounts were deactivated. By February 2020, PHAC had determined the couple violated multiple policies by, among other things, shipping antibodies outside of the lab without authorization — including to the China National Institute for Food and Drugs — and failing to monitor restricted visitors who were later accused of removing government property without permission.... Alarmed by the findings, PHAC sent its administrative report to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which reopened its security assessment of Qiu and Cheng.....
"The documents show the service's initial assessment of the couple in April 2020 gave them the benefit of the doubt.... But by June of 2020, CSIS felt differently — and was armed with evidence. In a document drafted that month and released this week, CSIS wrote that Qiu was using the level 4 lab in Canada 'as a base to assist China to improve its capability to fight highly-pathogenic pathogens'.... CSIS said Qiu applied to China's Thousand Talents Program for the stated purpose of helping the People's Republic of China build up its infectious disease research. Beijing's Thousand Talents Program was set up to 'boost China's national technological capabilities and may pose a serious threat to research institutions, including government research facilities, by incentivizing economic espionage and theft of intellectual property,' said CSIS in its report....
"CSIS said Qiu told 'outright lies'.... The intelligence service also said it believed Cheng was not truthful in his interviews and had worked with a restricted visitor at PHAC 'who is connected to the People's Liberation Army'.... Taking CSIS's findings into consideration, PHAC suspended the couple's security clearances — a condition of their employment — in August of 2020.... Their dismissals were announced in January 2021....
"CBC has made multiple attempts to contact Qiu and Cheng. The Chinese embassy in Ottawa has denied that China stole Canadian information....
"After opposition parties spent years demanding access to government documents about the case, the federal government released hundreds of redacted pages on Wednesday. The government initially opposed releasing the bulk of the information, arguing that it would be detrimental to national security. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would instead share the documents with the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), which is made up of MPs who are appointed by the prime minister.... In June 2021, opposition parties voted to declare the Liberal government in contempt of Parliament over its refusal to release the documents. The federal government then took the Speaker of the House of Commons to court to get a judge's confirmation that it has the legal authority to withhold documents requested by members of Parliament sitting on a Commons committee....
"On Thursday, Prime Minister Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre traded shots over the case. Poilievre accused Trudeau of allowing China to 'infiltrate' Canada and covering it up by delaying the release of the documents.... Later that day, Trudeau accused Poilievre of weaponizing national security....
"The RCMP says it's still investigating the matter."
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/winnipeg-lab-firing-documents-released-china-1.7130284
Scientists fired from Winnipeg lab shared information with China, documents say | CBC News: The National | February 29, 2024:
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