A laboratory that boasts strict security. Ebora. A mysterious package. It’s the Chinese army.
Explosive national scandal at the Winnipeg-based National Microbiology Laboratory after hundreds of documents related to the firings of two scientists, Dr. Chiu Xiangguo and her husband, Keding Chen, were released earlier this week. The curtain has been drawn on the security investigation. Canadian Center for Science in Human and Animal Health (CSCHAH).
The investigation and the fight to make information about it public took years.
How it all started
Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) documents show that the agency’s National Security Management Division in September 2018 named Qiu as the inventor of a Chinese patent that may contain scientific information created at CSCHAH in Winnipeg. I received a notification that Mr. She shared that data without authorization.
Qiu, then head of vaccines and antivirals in CSCHAH’s zoonotic diseases and special pathogens division, told investigators from Presidia Security Consulting, an outside firm hired by PHAC to carry out the fact-finding mission. He said he didn’t know his name was on it. Patent.
Intelligence documents detail the reasons why Xiangguo Chiu and her husband, Keding Chen, were fired from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg in 2021.
According to Presidia’s March 2019 report, multiple interviewees, including PHAC’s chief scientific officer, told investigators that it was highly unlikely that a researcher’s name would appear on a patent without their knowledge. told.
This patent was for a treatment for Ebola hemorrhagic fever. Colleagues at the National Microbiology Laboratory interviewed as part of PHAC’s fact-finding mission say the patent uses information collected by the CSCHAH laboratory in its search for molecules and compounds that could inhibit Ebola. He said it was highly likely that he did.
The National Security Administration also launched an investigation into Chen’s alleged violation of security policy regarding students under his supervision.
Their interviews pointed to several lax security practices at the National Microbiology Laboratory. For example, in May 2018, a package from China to Cheng labeled “kitchen utensils” arrived at the lab. X-ray examination revealed a vial containing a substance that was later determined to be a mouse protein. Chen told investigators he didn’t know it would happen and was not contagious.
Another interviewee, whose name is redacted in the document, suggested that visitors are allowed to enter the premises unescorted. One of the subjects said he had heard of incidents where people were trying to remove vials.
”[Restricted visitors], they run wild. They have a sense of entitlement,” she said.
PHAC’s first fact-finding mission raised even more questions.
On July 5, 2019, Chiu and Chen were told they were the subject of an administrative investigation and ordered to stay at home. At that point, their access cards and computer accounts were deactivated.
By February 2020, PHAC had arrested the couple for unauthorized transport of antibodies outside of laboratories, including the China Food and Drug Research Institute, and for failing to monitor restricted visitors who were later accused of taking them. , determined that multiple policies had been violated. Use government property without permission.
What CSIS discovered
Alarmed by the findings, PHAC sent an administrative report to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which resumed the security assessment of Chiu and Chung. Intelligence agencies are responsible for conducting assessments of government personnel who have access to classified information and classified sites.
Documents show that the service’s initial assessment of the couple in April 2020 cleared them of suspicion.
“I have no relationship with foreign officials. I’m just a biologist,” Chen told CSIS.
Qiu told CSIS that she did not know the proper policies and procedures she needed to follow and was too busy to read PHAC’s emails. Although she grew up in China, she considered herself Canadian, she said.
“The service has no reason to suggest that Mr. Chiu would willingly cooperate with a foreign power knowing that this would harm Canada,” CSIS said in its spring 2020 assessment.
“However, we believe that certain personality traits, such as an overriding belief in the goodwill of other scientists and a clear desire to avoid rules and procedures that might delay our own actions, lead us to believe that Chiu Foreign influence could result in information and materials leaving the laboratory that could be harmful to national security or personal health. ”
But by June 2020, CSIS had changed its mind and the evidence was coming together.
In a document drafted in the same month and released this week, CSIS said Qiu had used Canada’s Level 4 laboratory “as a hub to help improve China’s ability to combat highly pathogenic pathogens” and had achieved “glorious results.” ”.
Qiu “provided the Chinese government with the genetic sequence of Ebola, which opened a door of convenience for China,” CSIS wrote.
CSIS pointed to an application recovered during the investigation and said Qiu applied to China’s Thousand Talents Program for the stated purpose of helping the People’s Republic of China strengthen infectious disease research. .
CSIS said in its report that Beijing’s Thousand Talents Plan was “established to increase China’s national technological capabilities and seriously undermine research institutions, including government research facilities, by encouraging economic espionage and intellectual property theft.” It could pose a threat.”
Qiu was also co-author of the study, along with officials from the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, where CSIS is the highest-level medical research institution for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). CSIS says the academy works on “health services operations” for the military.
“These missions include military biotechnology development, biological counterterrorism, and major disease prevention and control,” CSIS wrote.
CSIS claims Chiu told a ‘complete lie’
Chiu told CSIS interviewers that he did not believe his scientific research could be used by foreign organizations for nefarious purposes.
A June 2020 CSIS assessment said that when faced with relations with China, “Ms. Qiu continued to offer outright denials, feigned ignorance, and outright lies.”
In one instance, Qiu told investigators that a trip to China in 2018 was a personal vacation. However, she later provided evidence that she agreed to work for at least two months each year at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, with the aim of strengthening China’s “new and powerful biosecurity platform for infectious disease research,” according to CSIS. It is said that he was confronted.
According to emails released by the service, Qiu discussed transporting the Ebola virus without authorization to a research lab in Wuhan.
The intelligence agency also said it believed Chen’s interviews were untrue and that he was working with PHAC’s restricted visitors “with ties to the People’s Liberation Army.”
“The service is based on the fact that Ms. Qiu has cultivated deep and cooperative relationships with various institutions in the People’s Republic of China, and has used scientific knowledge and materials to benefit the government of the People’s Republic of China and herself, disregarding national interests. “We assess that the transfer of the information to her employer and Canada’s national interests was intentional,” CSIS wrote.
In light of CSIS’ findings, PHAC suspended the couple’s security clearance as a condition of their employment in August 2020.
Both filed complaints alleging discrimination, reputational damage and emotional distress. Complaint dismissed.
PHAC pointed to a mountain of evidence and concluded that Chiu posed a threat to the organization.
“Dr. Chiu said that high levels of security are considered necessary for the Canadian government as a whole, especially because of the potential for theft of dangerous materials that are attractive to terrorists and foreign organizations conducting intrusive and damaging espionage activities. “The facility represents a very serious and credible risk to Canada’s economic security,” the November 2020 PHAC report states.
“Dr. Qiu has demonstrated dishonest behavior and her actions call into question her credibility.”
PHAC also said Chen had invited foreign scientists to work at the National Microbiology Laboratory for several months without approval and could not be trusted.
The government ultimately decided to revoke Chiu and Chung’s security clearances. Their layoffs were announced in January 2021.
CBC made multiple attempts to contact Chiu and Chen.
The Chinese embassy in Ottawa denied that China stole Canadian information.
“Allegations that China attempted to steal Canadian secrets are completely baseless,” the embassy said in a statement. “We firmly oppose this.”
dispute over documents
After opposition parties spent years demanding access to government documents related to the case, the federal government released hundreds of redacted pages on Wednesday.
The government initially opposed releasing much of the information, saying it would harm national security. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would instead share the document with the National Security and Intelligence Parliamentary Committee (NSICOP), which is made up of MPs appointed by the prime minister and has national security clearance.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he has asked his national security adviser to investigate what happened at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg and make recommendations. He then turned to criticizing Conservative leader Pierre Poièvre, accusing him of spewing conspiracy theories.
In June 2021, the opposition voted to declare the Liberal government in contempt of parliament for refusing to release documents. The federal government then took the Speaker to court and obtained a judge’s confirmation that it had the legal authority to withhold documents requested by members of the House committee.
A special committee of parliamentarians was then set up to consider the editorial content. The commission acknowledged that some information should remain blacked out due to national security concerns, but concluded that other information was censored to protect government agencies. Ta. A committee of former judges signed the final release.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Trudeau and Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poièvre got into an argument over the incident.
Poiivre accused Trudeau of allowing China to “infiltrate” Canada, delaying the release of documents and concealing them.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poièvre said researchers at the Winnipeg-based institute should not be allowed to work with China.
Later that day, Trudeau accused Poièvre of weaponizing national security.
“Their quickness to seek partisan advantage is not only undermining Canadians’ trust in our institutions, but also hampering Parliament’s ability to address this,” he said.
Prime Minister Trudeau said he has asked the national security adviser to investigate what happened at the lab and make recommendations.
RCMP say the matter is still under investigation.
