Ottawa releases documents on fired Winnipeg lab scientists after 4 years

After four years, the federal government is now releasing documents related to the high-profile firing of two scientists from Canada’s National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg in 2019.

Health Minister Mark Holland announced the tabling of the documents in Parliament on Wednesday, after a special ad-hoc committee formed to review the documents recommended they be released unredacted.

“Mr. Speaker, this process has demonstrated that the parties of this House can work together to ensure accountability and transparency to Canadians,” Holland said, adding later in a press conference with reporters that the documents show an “unacceptable” security situation in the lab.

The documents are expected to detail the 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 public health officials described as “relating to possible breaches in security protocols.”

The couple were subsequently fired in January 2021.

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At the time, amid calls from opposition MPs to release unredacted documents related to the scientists’ firing, then-Public Health Agency of Canada president Iain Stewart argued that he was prevented by law from releasing material that could violate privacy or national security laws.

The refusal to hand over documents led the House of Commons to issue its first formal rebuke of a non-MP in nearly 110 years. That came after MPs voted to invoke a rare set of powers to discipline or potentially even imprison people.

Clad in a dark suit, Stewart was brought in by the sergeant-at-arms to stand at the bar of the House of Commons — literally a long brass bar across the green carpet — where he was reprimanded in a rare move.

A year later, Holland, who at the time was the government House leader, announced the creation of the ad-hoc committee of MPs from all parties to review the unredacted documents and determine if they could be released to the public.

More to come…

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