Finally! A public body They will sit to light In an incredible espionage case. China stole information for years from Canada's main virus research center, the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. It is one of the few laboratories in North America capable of handling pathogens that require the highest level of containment (Level 4), such as Ebola.
The Parliamentary Committee may call any witnesses it considers relevant. Its first session is likely to take place early next week.
He Based on hundreds of documents DD Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng, who worked at the Winnipeg lab.
Disappeared without a trace
The two researchers were fired in 2019 after sending samples of viruses, including Ebola, to the Chinese Institute of Virology in Wuhan. But their dismissal was announced in January 2021 when CSIS issued a warning about Qiu: “His close and covert ties to various Chinese entities pose a threat to Canada's security”.
It wasn't until February 2020 that the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) determined that the couple had stolen viruses and “allowed visitors to take over government property without authorization.”
I can't wait to see the folks in charge of the lab reporting to PHAC come in and explain the failure. How can two spies be allowed to disappear without a trace? Why didn't the RCMP arrest them?
One of two things. Or they returned to China, which is more likely. We set them free! Like that! Or they asked for political asylum, which we accepted on the condition that they disclose all the details of their espionage work. Possible, but it would surprise me.
Another Chinese ghost haunting Trudeau
Until now, when the Conservatives, NDP and Bloc Québécois asked for an explanation of this strange affair, Justin Trudeau declined to comment, said it would jeopardize national security and ongoing investigations. This is what governments always say to prevent their follies, mistakes and wrongdoings from being made public.
Members of the commission must find out how these two Chinese spies were able to steal samples of some of the world's deadliest viruses and bring them to China, which is at loggerheads with Canada.
They will also want to know how the pair, who are linked to the Chinese military, were able to obtain top-level security clearances to access the secrets of a highly secure Canadian laboratory.
Qi worked in both Winnipeg and Wuhan
In one of the CSIS documents made public by the federal government on Wednesday, we learn that Q lied again and again At trial. Therefore, he told the interrogators that he takes a two-month holiday in China every year. In fact, CSIS discovered that he worked there at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
If China is interested in developing tests, vaccines, and treatments for the severe viral hemorrhagic fever Ebola, it is undoubtedly because it is investing in African regions affected by the virus.
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