Secret documents on sacked Winnipeg scientists to be seen by Liberal committee and NDP after deal is reached

The Liberal government and the NDP have reached an agreement to set up an ad hoc committee – without the approval of the Official Opposition – that he will gain access to secret documents about the firings of two infectious disease scientists at Canada’s high-security microbiology laboratory.

The panel will not be a committee of Parliament, meaning it will not have the delegated authority and investigative powers of the House of Commons.

It will go ahead even if the Conservatives and the Quebecois bloc refuse to join, Government House Leader Mark Holland told The Globe and Mail on Wednesday. The Conservatives insist they will not participate, while the Bloc did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

“We don’t have a lot of faith or confidence in the Liberals’ approach to this,” caretaker Conservative leader Candice Bergen said.

Mr. Holland promised that the ad hoc committee will have full access to all national security documents that explain why Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were fired from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg in January 2021.

The two scientists lost their security clearances in July 2019 and the RCMP was called in to investigate. Dr. Qiu, who led the antiviral and vaccine development section at the Winnipeg lab, and Mr. Cheng were fired in January 2021.

The Globe and Mail has reported that a high-ranking Chinese People’s Liberation Army officer collaborated on Ebola research with Dr. Qiu, and that the RCMP is investigating whether the sacked scientists passed on Canadian intellectual property to China.

Opposition parties have been demanding for nine months that the Liberal government release unredacted versions of the documents. The government has refused to do so, warning that his release could endanger national security.

Mr. Holland said he hopes the committee can get going as soon as possible.

The NDP reached a deal in March to shore up the Liberal minority government on budget and trust issues, and the deal on the Winnipeg laboratory papers committee expands the scope of cooperation between the two sides.

“With the involvement of the NDP, we will proceed with this ad hoc committee,” Mr. Holland said. “We believe it is essential that parliamentarians have the opportunity to see these documents and challenge the wordings.”

The Decibel Podcast: Why Two Scientists Were Fired From a Winnipeg Virus Lab?

Asked if the Canadians would find out exactly why the two scientists were fired, Holland said: “Anything that can be shared should be shared.” He said information that could harm national security would be kept hidden from the public, but not from parliamentarians on the ad hoc committee.

“What Canadians should expect is that parliamentarians from all parties … have the opportunity to see every last letter of the documents and get the full story,” he said. “They will have the opportunity to appeal to an independent body of jurists if they disagree with the wordings.”

Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong said the Liberal plan bypasses Parliament because the panel will not be a formal parliamentary committee.

He said he believes the Liberals reached a deal with the NDP because the Conservatives have been pushing for a vote on their proposal for the House of Commons foreign affairs standing committee to see the documents.

“This is clearly the government trying to divert attention from what we’re trying to do,” Chong said. “It is an attempt to deny information to Parliament.”

He said a committee of Parliament, not one set up by the Liberals, should get the documents. The Liberal government’s rules for handling documents will prevent parliamentarians from finding out what happened, he said. “They are putting a lot of restrictions on this committee that will allow the government to withhold information from the committee.”

NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson defended the deal between the NDP and the Liberals, saying the matter could disrupt proceedings in the foreign affairs committee at a time when pressing issues such as Russia’s war against Ukraine require your attention. “My priority is to get these documents to parliamentarians. There was a log jam,” she said.

The affair led to a parliamentary showdown last June when opposition parties banded together and cited parliamentary privilege to order the government to release the records.

When the Liberals refused to do so, they voted to hold the Public Health Agency of Canada in contempt of Parliament. The government went to court to try to stop the release of documents, but abandoned the effort when the election was called.

Just before Christmas, the Liberals changed course and proposed the ad hoc committee with a panel of judges as arbitrators.

The Conservatives rejected the idea, saying they wanted the Liberals to stick with a plan they first put forward last June for the House of Commons law clerk to examine documents to be provided to MPs.

“The process they have suggested would not protect national security documents or national security matters,” Holland said.

More than 250 pages of records have been withheld from parliamentarians in their entirety, and hundreds of others have been partially redacted. MPs have been seeking documents related to the March 2019 transfer of deadly virus samples to the Wuhan Institute of Virology that was overseen by Dr. Qiu.

The RCMP investigation focuses on the possibility that materials such as plasma DNA molecules, which could be used to recreate vaccines or viruses, were transferred to Chinese authorities without the approval of the Public Health Agency.

The Globe has also reported that Dr. Qiu collaborated on scientific papers with Chinese military researchers.