Top-secret Canadian lab installs X-ray scanners to deter Chinese spies

Alex Dhaliwal
  |   July 30, 2024   |   Be the first to comment

Canada’s most secure bio-lab has installed X-ray scanners six years after suspected Chinese spies were found working at the Winnipeg facility. The National Microbiology Laboratory was the only Level-4 facility outside China that persons of interest accessed.

“It’s always easy to look at what happened in the past with a retrospective lens and then see how easy it was,” Nathalie Drouin, deputy Privy Council clerk, testified on April 30. “From the first signal to the moment the two scientists were put on leave, yes, there is a timeline that needs to be looked at,” she said.

“We can always say things could have been faster,” testified Deputy Drouin. “However, at the beginning, it was not even clear it was a national security issue. It was a more lax administrative procedure,” she said.

Evidence showed the two scientists maintained secret contacts with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army bioweapons program, with one holding a Beijing bank account.

Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, head of vaccine research at the Winnipeg facility, had 44 collaborative projects with Chinese scientists while tenured, some of which included military researchers.

Her husband, Keding Cheng, a biologist, “was less than honest” with intelligence officials about alleged ties with foreign officials. “I am just a biologist,” he said. 

Managers at the National Microbiology Laboratory knew of their collaboration with foreign scientists and acknowledged that relations soured by the end of their tenure.

The couple posed “a very serious and credible danger … due to the potential for theft of dangerous materials attractive to terrorist and foreign entities,” according to a 2020 Canadian Security Intelligence Service memo.

“He [Trudeau] called a snap election to make sure the voting would happen before this came out,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters earlier. “And what happened in that election, Beijing interfered to help him win it.”

The Trudeau government eventually disclosed that both scientists had top-level clearance at the National Microbiology Laboratory despite being security risks.

“Concerns have been raised regarding security,” said a June 19 Department of Health note. The health department “invested significant time and attention to ensure research and science are conducted with strict security compliance,” it added.

Examples of security changes include new X-ray protocols at the facility’s entrance, reported Blacklock’s Reporter. Other measures include a new rule prohibiting visitors from wandering the halls without a security escort. 

In addition, all shipments in and out of the facility are now logged after investigators found one biologist took shipments of lab proteins from China labelled as “kitchen utensils” in 2018.

Dr. Qiu and Cheng were cited for suspicious conduct in August 2018 but retained access to the facility until July 2019. The Chinese embassy in Ottawa has denied any wrongdoing in its dealings with the couple.

“Between the time red flags were first raised about Dr. Qiu and Dr. Cheng in the fall of 2018 through to the time they were marched out of the Lab on July 5, 2019, were any restrictions during that nearly 11-month window placed upon them in terms of their access to the Lab?” asked Conservative MP Michael Cooper. “There was no evidence of their affiliation with external actors,” replied Heather Jeffrey, president of the Public Health Agency.

Evidence showed Cheng sent lab-related emails through an unmonitored Google Mail account despite repeated warning and gave encrypted USB keys with passwords to “restricted visitors” at the lab.

Dr. Qiu also shipped 15 strains of Nipah and Ebola viruses to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) on March 31, 2019, to study the nature of infection and develop antibodies. The Public Health Agency approved their shipment, but the project remained a secret to them initially, declassified documents show. 

Dr. Qiu discussed shipping the viral strains in July 2018 without a formal agreement in place. “No one owns the IP [Intellectual Property],” she said.

The Public Health Agency maintains they followed all protocols despite the shipments lacking a standard material-transfer agreement to clearly outline intellectual property rights.

“How were there not red flags at that point?” asked Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith. “These were allegations,” replied Guillaume Poliquin, vice president of the National Microbiology Laboratory. “Further investigation was ongoing.”

Dr. Qiu and Cheng were finally suspended without pay and then fired in January 2021. The reason for their dismissal was never disclosed. 

The couple are now believed to have fled to China. 

For years, MPs on the Commons Special Committee on Canada-China Relations have attempted to determine why lab security was lax. 

Health Minister Mark Holland in his April 9 testimony said the espionage case was treated as a human resources matter. “We have due process,” he said.

“These were employees who were long-term employees, 2003 and 2006,” said Holland. “I mean, these are Canadian citizens, eminent scientists,” said Holland. “Eminent scientists or eminent spies?” asked Conservative MP Michael Cooper. Holland did not reply.

The Official Opposition told Rebel News they welcome the updates to security but remain critical of past national security failures.

“The Trudeau government has failed to protect the security of our country’s highest security lab and has stopped at nothing, including taking the House of Commons and their own Speaker to court to cover up the truth about it,” said Dr. Stephen Ellis, the Conservative health critic.

“It is deeply concerning that Winnipeg lab continues to experience security issues, but it comes as no surprise since Justin Trudeau has failed to take our national security seriously from the very beginning,” Dr. Ellis told Rebel.

Conservatives continue to demand transparency and accountability from the Trudeau government, he said.

Rebel asked how the Official Opposition would achieve accountability after several failed attempts to study the security breach. The publication did not receive a response.

Alex Dhaliwal

Journalist and Writer

Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.

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