There are no Conservative MPs among the newly named slate of parliamentarians to oversee the security-and-intelligence community following the party's decision to boycott the body.

The government says Liberal MPs Patricia Lattanzio and James Maloney are joining the committee, while Liberals Brenda Shanahan and Peter Fragiskatos, as well as Conservatives Leona Alleslev and Rob Morrison, have left.

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole pulled his party's MPs from the committee last spring to protest the Liberal government's refusal to hand over unredacted documents related to the firing of two scientists from Canada's highest-security laboratory.

Liberals propose all-party committee to view documents on fired scientists

The Liberal government is proposing a compromise over a long-running dispute with opposition parties over the disclosure of documents related to the firing of two scientists at Canada’s highest-security laboratory.

Three tall white buildings are seen from the air, against a wintry cityscape. 

The National Microbiology Lab is Canada's only biosafety level-4 lab, located in Winnipeg.

National Microbiology Lab

Canada's National Microbiology Lab, where Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng worked, is located in Winnipeg.

Mystery around 2 fired scientists points to larger issues at Canada's high-security lab, former colleagues say

Two leading scientists are standing by a pair of researchers fired from Canada's National Microbiology Lab, instead pointing the finger at issues inside the high-security facility itself.

‘It’s not Qiu that gave access to the building’

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. 

Xiangguo Qiu

Dr. Xiangguo Qiu was escorted out of the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg in July 2019. She was then fired last January, but the Public Health Agency of Canada refuses to say why.

In a Dec. 17 letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, O'Toole said the Conservative boycott of the all-party National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, known as NSICOP, would continue in the new session of Parliament until the wraps are taken off those documents.

O'Toole's boycott leaves security panel of parliamentarians with no Conservative MPs

The committee, established in 2017, has the authority to review sensitive activities across the federal government.

It submits classified reports to the prime minister, which are later tabled in Parliament in edited form.

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole pulled his party's MPs from the committee last spring to protest the Liberal government's refusal to hand over unredacted documents related to the firing of two scientists from Canada's highest-security laboratory. 

O'Toole's boycott leaves security panel of parliamentarians with no Conservative MPs

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