Years after scientists lost security clearances at top lab, there are still concerns about who has access

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) says it has tightened security of its Level-4 National Microbiology Lab (NML) in Winnipeg years after two scientists were escorted out over concerns about security breaches, but experts worry the back door may still be open to graduate and postdoctoral students affiliated with the University of Manitoba.

«We had scientists from a hostile country not only potentially sharing highly problematic material … but in the process, likely, it appears China picked up key operational and procedural know-how from Canada,» said Christian Leuprecht, a security and defence expert who teaches political science and economics at The Royal Military College of Canada.

He says lax security protocols are a problem «every day at Canadian research institutions. And we are now slowly, slowly starting to change the institutional culture.»

A Level-4 facility is equipped to work with the most serious and deadly human and animal disease, making NML one of only a handful of labs in North America capable of handling pathogens like Ebola, which require the highest level of containment.

Many of the NML scientists also have appointments at the University of Manitoba (U of M), which means some of their students have access to the country's highest-security infectious disease lab through joint research. That's how researchers with connections to the Chinese government and military gained access to the lab.

U of M says it currently has no formal affiliation agreement in place between the NML and departments offering graduate studies, relying only on a policy that is meant to govern the work of adjunct professors.

Supervisors are supposed to monitor their students whenever they are in the NML, but that hasn't always