Conservatives to try again for Winnipeg lab doc committee probe

Members of a special House of Commons committee on Tuesday will consider whether to study documents detailing allegations against two scientists fired from a high-security lab in Winnipeg.

The special committee on the Canada–People’s Republic of China relationship is set to meet at 8:45 a.m. eastern at the request of Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong.

Chong is seeking for the committee to probe the matter and call several witnesses, including Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) officials, Health Minister Mark Holland and Democratic Institutions Minister Dominic LeBlanc.

“It took 3 years to get the Winnipeg lab docs. We finally got them 3 weeks ago,” Chong said in a post on X on Friday.

“Since then, we’ve not been able to get dedicated hearings on the docs at a committee.”

Earlier this month, Chong attempted to get the House of Commons’ ethics committee to probe the matter. However, a majority of members voted to end debate on the motion after Liberal MP Iqra Khalid said hearings were unnecessary and fall outside the committee’s mandate.

Released last month, more than 600 pages of documents detail allegations against scientists Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng, who were escorted from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg in July 2019 for reasons “relating to possible breaches in security protocols,” public health officials said at the time.

They were subsequently fired in January 2021.

The Winnipeg lab is Canada’s only Level 4 laboratory, designed to deal safely with deadly contagious germs such as the Ebola virus.

Cheng was accused of violating safety and security policies by inviting restricted visitors into the lab unaccompanied, who then allegedly removed materials from the lab.

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