Front Burner

Unraveling the Winnipeg disease lab mystery

A trove of documents from Canada’s spy agency gives new insights into why two scientists were fired from a high-security infectious diseases lab in Winnipeg
An Asian woman with glasses wears a blue biocontainment suit connected to a respirator while working in a laboratory environment.
Xiangguo Qiu wears a biocontainment suit while working in the containment lab at the National Microbiology Lab (NML) in Winnipeg. Qiu, her biologist husband Keding Cheng, and her students were escorted out of the NML in July 2019. Qiu and Cheng were fired in January 2021. The RCMP is still investigating a possible 'policy breach' reported by the Public Health Agency of Canada. (CBC)

Since 2019, questions have swirled around why two scientists, originally from China, were marched out of a high-security infectious disease lab in Winnipeg. They were later stripped of their security clearances and fired, in a case that has raised suspicions about Chinese espionage, and prompted calls for the Liberal government to release more information.

Now, at least some questions have been answered. Last week the federal government released hundreds of documents, largely from Canada's spy agency, CSIS, about the scientists' dismissal. The documents contain revealing insights — but also leave many questions unanswered, putting further pressure on the government to allow a deeper investigation into this story.

Today CBC reporters Karen Pauls and Catharine Tunney join us to dive into the revelations in these documents, the political firestorm they're causing, and what questions remain unanswered.

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