What the hell happened to Canada?
From The Daily Mail, March 5/6:
Canadian lab that handles world's deadliest viruses tightens security after investigation finds researchers with connections to the Chinese government and military gained access and MAILED live Ebola virus to Wuhan
- Dr Xiangguo Qiu and Dr Kending Cheng have been fired from the lab
- But the pair are thought to still be a 'very serious and credible danger' to Canada
A Chinese couple working at Canada's highest biosecurity lab were secretly sending information to Beijing and mailed live Ebola to China, a bombshell investigation has found.
In a 600-page report released this week by the Canadian intelligence service, the pair were also accused of allowing visitors into the lab who tried to leave carrying plastic bags of vials containing an unknown substance.
Dr Xiangguo Qiu and Dr Keding Cheng were found to have left visitors with ties to the Chinese government and military unsupervised at the facility.
The report also accused the pair of being in communication with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the facility at the center of the Covid lab-leak theory, without informing superiors.
The Canadian National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where they worked as researchers, is the only BSL4 lab in the country — and the only one to hold Ebola, as well as other deadly viruses like Marburg and Lassa fever.
It has now been ordered to tighten its security over the leak, with universities told their funding could be cut if they are found to be collaborating with foreign institutions — like those in China.
The Canadian Government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has fought for years to keep the investigation by the Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) a secret, according to media reports....
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Previously:
June 24, 2022: "Whereabouts of fired Winnipeg scientists at centre of national-security investigation still unclear":
What the hell is going on in Canada?
Obsessive Attentive reader may recall some odd little news bites coming out of Canada in 2019 - 2020:
Then last year (June 4, 2021) the Globe and Mail published "Whereabouts of two scientists fired from Winnipeg virus lab for possible national-security issues shrouded in mystery"
And a couple days ago, this, from the Globe and Mail, June 22, 2022:
Whereabouts of fired Winnipeg scientists at centre of national-security investigation still unclear
A year and a half after two Canadian scientists were fired from Ottawa’s top-security infectious-disease laboratory over alleged national security breaches, it is still unclear whether the couple are now in China or living at an undisclosed location in Canada.
The RCMP are conducting a criminal investigation into allegations related to their time at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.
The Liberal government has said only that the firing was related to sensitive national-security matters. It is preparing to provide secret documents about their dismissal to a special committee.
In June of last year, The Globe reported that Xiangguo Qiu, a former head of a virology program at the laboratory, and her biologist husband, Keding Cheng, were no longer living at their home in Winnipeg.
Last week, The Globe returned to properties they own in Winnipeg but did not find the couple, who lost their security clearances in July, 2019, and were dismissed from their jobs in January, 2021.
They have not publicly commented on why they were dismissed. Nor has Dr. Qiu responded to recent questions from The Globe about whether their dismissal was related to the transfer of highly infectious viruses to China’s Wuhan Virology Institute or sharing of scientific data with Chinese Communist Party officials.
The couple own two homes in Winnipeg, including a rental property. They also own a property in cottage country in Gimli, Man. Their two sons live in the principal residence, valued at $1.2-million.
The sons would not talk to the media. Another family rents the second residence, valued at $524,000, but said they do not know where the scientists are. Two neighbours approached by The Globe would not provide their names, but said they thought the couple were in China.
A former colleague of the couple said it’s his understanding that they own a home in China. He did not know where. The Globe is not identifying the colleague, who did not want to speak publicly about his conversations with Dr. Qiu and Mr. Cheng.
RCMP Sergeant Paul Manaigre would not say if the Mounties know the couple’s location, but said the criminal investigation continues.
Exactly why the two scientists were fired has been a contentious political issue in Parliament. At first, the government would not disclose any information about the reasons, and even took House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota to court last year for trying to obtain documents....
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To their everlasting credit the Globe and Mail's Robert Fife and Steven Chase are the ones bulldogging the story, along with Shannon VanRaes on the latest piece.
