Health Minister Defends Time Lag Between Initial Alerts on Winnipeg Scientists and Launch of Investigation

Health Minister Mark Holland defended the time lag before the government launched an investigation into the two fired scientists at the Winnipeg lab, despite months passing since initial red flags were raised. Mr. Holland testified before the House of Commons Canada-China committee on April 8, addressing the ongoing investigation into national security breaches involving scientists Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng. Ms. Qiu and Mr. Cheng, a married couple, were removed from Canada’s top biosafety lab in Winnipeg by the RCMP in July 2019 and subsequently fired in January 2021 for having undisclosed ties to Chinese regime entities. According to declassified documents, red flags about the two scientists at the National Microbiology Lab (NML) were first raised in August 2018, but an investigation wasn’t launched until December that year....