TIRED OLD TORIES GOTCHA POLITICS

Conservatives reject Liberals' compromise deal on Winnipeg lab documents over firing of scientists

Ryan Tumilty 

OTTAWA — The Conservatives are rejecting a proposed deal over access to documents related to the firing of two scientists from Canada’s National Microbiology lab, arguing the Liberals’ efforts are too little too late.

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The National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were escorted out of the lab in July 2019, and later fired.

Liberal House Leader Mark Holland offered the compromise last week. It called for striking an all-party committee to review the confidential documents, with a panel of judges enlisted to settle any disputes over whether the documents should be made public or kept secret.

The documents surround the mysterious firing of two scientists from the national lab two years ago. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were escorted out of the Winnipeg lab in July 2019. The government has consistently refused to reveal why they were dismissed.

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Conservative House Leader Gérard Deltell said the new deal is insufficient and the Liberals should respect four separate votes from the last Parliament that called for the documents to be released.

“Regrettably, your government’s efforts to find a suitable arrangement are many months too late,” he said in a letter to Holland. “The will of Parliament is clear, September’s election has not changed its composition to the point where you might hope for a different outcome in a fifth vote.”

The documents were first demanded by the House of Commons committee on Canada-China relations, but the government essentially ignored the request. A motion was then passed in the House calling for them to be presented but Iain Stewart, then president of the Public Health Health Agency of Canada, repeatedly argued that he was prevented by law from releasing material that could violate privacy or national security laws.

The battle culminated in June with Stewart being hauled before the bar of the Commons to be reprimanded by the Speaker. A few days later, the government asked a Federal Court to intervene to stop the release of the documents, arguing they must be kept secret to protect national security. That case was then dropped when the Liberals called an election for September.

Deltell charged the Liberals have consistently avoided parliamentary accountability.

“We have little faith that your letter represents an actual change in any way, shape or form to the government approach given your pattern of behaviour concerning parliamentary accountability over the past few years.”

Holland said he was deeply disappointed to see the Conservatives respond as they did, especially because his proposal was modelled on one adopted by the Harper government in 2010 to allow opposition MPs to read unredacted documents detailing the treatment of detainees turned over to Afghan authorities by the Canadian military.

“I was hopeful their posture would be a reasonable one, and confused because the mechanism that we suggested was created by them. It was a mechanism that Stephen Harper called reasonable.”

Deltell in his letter contends the two situations are not the same, because the Liberals initial motion on Afghanistan had no safeguards for protecting sensitive information and the demand was coming as NATO troops remained on the ground in Afghanistan.

Under Holland’s rejected proposal each party and one alternate would sit on a panel to review the documents and decide what information should be made public. The MPs would be selected by their parties, but they would have to pass a security clearance and read the documents in a secure room.

Any disagreements about what should be made public would be decided by a panel of three judges, who would be selected by MPs from all parties.

Holland said the documents and the secrets within have to be protected and the Conservative proposal doesn’t achieve that.

“These are documents that could endanger our national security operations globally. Our relationships with our Five Eyes partners. It could endanger the lives of those that serve us.”

Holland said he hopes the Conservatives change their view, but he is prepared to work with the NDP and the Bloc Québécois to find a reasonable compromise.

“I am absolutely committed to continue to work with reasonable parties in the House and I’m very hopeful that the NDP and the Bloc won’t make a similar determination.”

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