Smallpox work puts Man. plant on 'terror' list

A Winnipeg biopharmaceutical company's work with smallpox was likely the reason it was included in a list of key security concerns identified by the United States, says a Canadian microbiologist.

Cangene Corp., on the University of Manitoba campus, was one of dozens of Canadian sites noted in U.S. diplomatic memos by Washington.

The secret list of foreign sites that could seriously harm the U.S. if they were targeted by terrorists. or destroyed by other means, was recently leaked on the WikiLeaks website.

Of all the nasty bugs and viruses terrorists might turn to, smallpox is the big one, said University of Alberta disease expert David Evans.

"We don't vaccinate against it anymore, right? So the public could potentially be infected by that one and, of course, if it was ever released again it would just spread very rapidly," he said.

Cangene makes Vaccinia Immune Globulin Intravenous (VIG), a bio-defence product that treats smallpox vaccine reactions. The U.S., a big customer, has been stockpiling it for years.

Retired lieutenant-general Ray Crabbe is less worried about a destructive attack on the plant than about terrorists getting their hands on what's inside.

"It's not the fact that they might do damage. It's ... the fear that could be spread from such an attack," he said.

Counter-terrorism expert Wesley Wark, with the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, doubts the WikiLeaks list means the Cangene facility is vulnerable to terrorists.

The U.S. is simply listing sites it wants protected, he said.

Other Canadian sites on the WikiLeaks list include:

• the Darlington and Pickering nuclear power plants east of Toronto,
• a number of international rail crossings and bridges,
• oil and gas pipelines,
• the James Bay hydroelectric project in Quebec,
• the Hibernia Atlantic undersea cable landing in Halifax,
• several dams, a number of mines and several factories producing everything from missile parts to plasma and vaccines.