The National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg in a file photo. (Michel Comte/AFP via GETTY IMAGES)
By Noé Chartier
A House of Commons committee is asking Ottawa to stop research collaboration with China in sensitive sectors in light of the controversy surrounding previous security breaches at Canada’s top biosafety lab.
The Canada-China committee issued a number of recommendations in its Nov. 4 report related to its study of the events at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. Two scientists there were fired in 2021 for having been involved in security breaches and having undisclosed links to the Chinese government and military.
One of the committee’s recommendations is for the Canadian government to “immediately end government research collaboration with entities and individuals in the People’s Republic of China in Canada’s Sensitive Technology Research Areas.” Among those areas are robotics, life science technology, and advanced weapons development.
Ottawa already took steps in early 2024 to implement new rules to address rising concerns about the theft of research and intellectual property by entities from China, Russia, and Iran.
According to the national security guidelines for research, the Policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern, Canadian researchers seeking federal funding cannot have links to a list of named research institutions, the majority of which are in China.
The policy is “country-agnostic,” says the document, in that it “does not target or profile any group of people or country” but “focuses on specific threats identified with regards to the military, national defence, or state security entities” that could pose a risk to national security.
The committee’s proposed recommendation to end collaboration with China in sensitive sectors could broaden the ban, but its impact on current research being conducted with China has not been explored.
The Epoch Times contacted the department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development for comment on the potential impact but did not receive a response by publication time.
Collaboration
Officials who testified before the Canada-China committee during its study on the Winnipeg lab security breaches said there is no ongoing bilateral research collaboration between Canadian laboratories and Chinese scientists or its government.
It is “deeply tragic, frankly, that the relationship with China deteriorated such that we can’t collaborate on these issues any longer,” Health Minister Mark Holland testified at the committee in April.
Speaking to reporters in March, Holland said some cooperation with Chinese scientists “might be occurring” through collaboration with the World Health Organization.
“I won’t say there’s no collaboration, but the nature of that deliberate collaboration is totally different as it’s become apparent that there are efforts for them [China] to impact our scientific community,” he said.
Holland was reacting shortly after his government tabled over 600 pages of documents on the Winnipeg lab, which includes security reports from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
The documents detail how Winnipeg lab scientists Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng lost their security clearances and were escorted out of the lab by the RCMP in 2019, and were eventually fired in 2021.
Both had undisclosed ties to the Chinese regime and Qiu helped Beijing build its program to study deadly pathogens, including through work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The WIV had sought to obtain pathogens such as Ebola and Nipah, and Qiu facilitated sending the samples to them in 2019, with the approval of the Winnipeg lab.
MPs on the China-Committee noted in their report that the WIV does not appear on the list of named research institutions and recommended it be added, along with talent programs used by Beijing to recruit foreign scientists such as Qiu.
The committee made multiple other recommendations to reinforce security around science in Canada, including that dangerous pathogens only be transferred to laboratories of trusted countries.
The committee also said Ottawa should “explore constitutionally compliant ways to prevent those under investigation for national security breaches from leaving the country.” This relates to married couple Qiu and Cheng leaving Canada for China while under an RCMP investigation.
MPs on the committee also said the government should draft a new national security policy, something not done since 2004 under the Paul Martin government.
The committee’s report will be presented to the House and the government has been asked to provide a response.