Winnipeg Lab Leak - National Security Breach or ＂Not Worth Investigating？＂ ｜ A Critical Compass Clip
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
138.27994
Summary
In 2019, two scientists were fired from the National Microbiology lab in Winnipeg, Canada for working covertly with the Chinese government. What was the connection between these activities and the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus? And why was this happening in the first place?
Transcript
00:00:00.000
There was a committee formed to discuss the firing of some scientists from a microbiology
00:00:16.100
This happened kind of during the COVID pandemic, and there has been some, I don't want to say
00:00:26.100
conspiracy around it, because it really isn't a conspiracy at this point, but there has
00:00:30.360
been some very important questions being asked about what exactly those scientists were doing
00:00:37.040
in that lab in Winnipeg in 2019, and what ramifications that might have had in relation to the COVID
00:00:46.120
So, I'm going to pull up another article here, and...
00:01:00.520
So, the article headline from the National Post is, Fired Scientists at Winnipeg Lab Worked
00:01:04.500
Closely and Covertly with Chinese Government, CSIS Report Says.
00:01:08.380
This is from February 28th, so just a few days ago.
00:01:11.580
And yesterday, a committee determined that, even with this report saying, this is the
00:01:18.740
quote from CSIS, the service assesses that Mrs., I don't want to mispronounce her name,
00:01:24.080
I think it's Chu, Mrs. Chu, developed deep cooperative relationships with a variety of People's
00:01:29.700
Republic of China institutions, and has intentionally transferred scientific knowledge and materials
00:01:34.520
to China in order to benefit the PRC government.
00:01:37.600
Reads a letter from January 2021, recommending her security clearance be revoked.
00:01:42.040
So, a committee in the House of Commons determined that, even with that CSIS, very unambiguous CSIS
00:01:56.600
Chu was found to have shipped sensitive materials outside of the National Microbiology Lab without
00:02:01.140
approval, including antibodies to the China National Institute for Food and Drug Control, as well
00:02:06.340
as some others to the United Kingdom and the United States for testing.
00:02:12.320
She also admitted to having sent several emails to research associates through personal email
00:02:16.580
accounts on Gmail or Yahoo instead of her personal corporate account.
00:02:20.560
As for Cheng, this is the second scientist, he not only used his personal email accounts
00:02:24.420
and unauthorized external drives to conduct government business, but also breached security
00:02:28.860
policies regarding students under his supervision by giving them access to the scientific network
00:02:35.860
This Chu, the main scientist here, the woman, she kind of, from what I understand, she kind
00:02:42.800
of rose to prominence by having quite a multifaceted approach using monoclonal antibodies to,
00:02:49.960
essentially to cure Ebola in a laboratory setting.
00:02:52.980
So there was initially some worries that there may have been really potentially lethal substances
00:03:00.440
being shipped overseas without proper procedures.
00:03:05.420
Apparently, she was not necessarily known for being, for following the letter of the law when
00:03:14.760
I'm going to share another article here, which even further complicates the matter of, like, why
00:03:23.680
why they would say this is not something worth investigating, because apparently
00:03:34.200
In this particular case, the information requested has both privacy and national security
00:03:40.260
Compliance with the order without proper safeguards in place would put sensitive information at
00:03:46.860
So this is something, um, that apparently is so sensitive that they can't, they can't discuss
00:03:55.740
it publicly, but at the same time, it's also not worth investigating.
00:04:01.060
So here's a, here it shows Xu had earlier been responsible for a shipment of Ebola and don't
00:04:09.820
know what this is, Hennepa viruses to China's Wuhan Institute of Virology.
00:04:16.280
But even though they don't know what it is and haven't investigated it, there is no connection
00:04:21.540
between the transfer of viruses cited in this order and the subsequent departure of these
00:04:25.940
No, and it's, there's definitely no link to COVID-19.
00:04:30.140
So these are, this is, uh, these are the perfect examples of our government officials talking
00:04:36.860
out of both sides of their mouth, but it, it doesn't stop there because actually, uh,
00:04:42.960
in that same year, uh, in 20, uh, 21, just a little bit later, Canadians must know what
00:04:52.680
China resists more investigation in its borders, but one strand of the trail leads to Winnipeg,
00:05:01.440
Now you can't see the full article on this view, but if I go to a reader view, there is
00:05:09.000
a section where, um, let's see if I can find the section.
00:05:20.720
The NML is Canada's only high containment lab for the study of human pathogens.
00:05:25.520
Its top level four lab, the sort devoted to the most dangerous microbes, was led by, again,
00:05:30.820
I'm sorry, I think Xiang Guochu, recipient in 2018 of Gover General's Innovation Award for
00:05:40.280
Xiang, Xiang Guochu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were marched out of that lab in 2019 by
00:05:46.580
the RCMP, their security clearances and access to data allegedly withdrawn.
00:05:51.800
Our federal government claimed this was nothing serious, just something to do with administrative
00:05:56.860
Yet it occurred just months after Chu sent 15 strains of Ebola, again, this NIPA and other
00:06:05.260
Those samples helped seed the WIV's own newly opened level four lab.
00:06:09.220
What do we know, James, about Wuhan's Institute of Virology level four lab?
00:06:15.820
We know it was denied as having anything to do with the last four years.
00:06:24.980
Just like, just like these scientists being, uh, escorted out by the RCMP and having CSIS
00:06:32.120
reports written about them, just like that has nothing to do with this either.
00:06:35.660
And you're a conspiracy theorist if you think otherwise, sir.
00:06:38.080
Well, even just taking it on face value, you listed not only just like the sharing of like
00:06:46.980
a result of something, the physically sending lab samples, like these are very clear examples
00:06:59.160
And why are they not investigating this other than to cover up any other potential corruption?
00:07:09.060
That would be my conclusion there, that the lack of looking at this further implicates
00:07:15.140
enough of the people around that, that it would create too much collateral damage.
00:07:21.520
Therefore, they don't want to look into it further.
00:07:23.840
You guys, I'm going to talk to 그다음, and see the future on the TOMA and the effect of also probably
00:07:29.600
If you see what'in the future, you don't want to go with them now.