OTTAWA – Liberal house leader Mark Holland is again asking the Conservatives to agree to a compromise over documents the government wants to keep secret on the firing of two scientists from Canada’s national microbiology lab.
In July 2019, scientist Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were escorted from the National Microbiology Laboratory and then later fired.
The National Post has previously reported that Qiu collaborated with Chinese government scientists on inventions patented in Beijing, but closely related to her job in the lab, even though federal civil servants are not allowed to file such patents.
The Conservatives and other opposition parties have been demanding for months that the government provide details on why the pair were fired and escorted from the lab, which does research on some of the most dangerous viruses in the world.
The government has resisted those efforts, citing national security implications of releasing the information, even after a vote in the commons demanding the documents.
Holland reached out in December to the Conservatives with a compromise offer to allow a special committee of MPs to examine the documents and take any disagreements over what could be released to a panel of judges. The idea is modelled on the committee that was set up in 2010 to review documents related to the transfer of Afghan detainees by Canadian forces.
The Conservatives rejected that offer, but Holland reached out again to argue it was the only solution to the impasse.
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