It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, September 11, 2021
Chinese-controlled company fights Ottawa's order to divest assets on security grounds
Author of the article: Canadian Press Jim Bronskill Publishing date:Sep 11, 2021 •
In this file photo taken on Dec. 5, 2017, shows Canadian and Chinese flags taken prior to a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and China's President Xi Jinping at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.
PHOTO BY FRED DUFOUR /POOL/AFP via Getty Images
OTTAWA — The Liberal government has directed a state-owned Chinese telecommunications firm to divest its stake in a Canadian subsidiary over national security concerns, prompting a court challenge of the order.
China Mobile International Canada is asking the Federal Court to set aside the recent decision, saying the government has no grounds to believe the company would compromise security or engage in espionage on behalf of Beijing.
CMI Canada says the Trudeau government was motivated, at least in part, by “the current political socioeconomic climate and the general biases against Chinese state-owned companies.”
The case unfolds amid high tensions between Ottawa and Beijing over China’s prolonged detention of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor for alleged spying.
China’s actions against Spavor and Kovrig are widely seen in the West as retaliation for the late 2018 arrest by Canadian authorities of Meng Wanzhou, an executive with Chinese firm Huawei Technologies, so she can be extradited to the U.S. to face fraud charges.
CMI Canada’s application filed this week in Federal Court reveals details of an investment screening case that has quietly unfolded outside the public eye over the last year.
The company, established in 2015, provides mobile communication services, including prepaid call plans, but does not itself own or operate any telecommunications network facilities. Instead, it has partnered with Telus Communications Inc. for provision of wireless services through the Telus network.
CMI Canada says it inadvertently neglected to inform the federal government of its presence as a new Canadian business until October of last year. A series of requests for information from federal officials soon followed.
The Investment Canada Act and the National Security Review of Investments Regulations allow the federal government to scrutinize an investment in Canada by a foreign enterprise.
In January, the government informed CMI Canada of a review on security grounds, saying the investment could result in the Canadian business being leveraged by the Chinese state “for non-commercial purposes, such as the compromise of critical infrastructure and foreign interference, to the detriment of Canada’s national security.”
Following additional information exchanges, the government issued an Aug. 9 order directing China Mobile to either divest itself entirely of or wind up the Canadian business within 90 days.
CMI Canada contends the conclusion was “tantamount to speculation about what the Canadian business may do,” such as using its supposed access to sensitive information for “military applications or espionage.”
The company argues Ottawa could not reasonably have concluded, based on the information available, that the investment would be harmful to Canada’s national security.
It says the company does not own nor operate any transmission facilities in Canada, lacks privileged or direct access to any critical infrastructure, and does not have access to any sensitive telecommunications data or personal information, other than basic contact details.
CMI Canada is asking the court to quash the federal decision or, in the alternative, to send the matter back to the government for reconsideration. It also wants the order put on hold pending outcome of the case and any appeals.
If the decision is not stayed, the company will be forced to leave “the Canadian landscape entirely. This would require the termination of its client base and operations,” the application says.
The federal government has not yet filed a response and no date has been set for a hearing.
Slovakian parliament bans foreign waste services
09 September 2021
Processing radioactive waste or used fuel from other countries has been banned in Slovakia, after a parliamentary resolution yesterday. The move will force the closure of a business unit of JAVYS, potentially leading to job losses once ongoing work is completed.
A shipment of radioactive resins and sludges leaves Italy for Slovakia in 2020 (Image: Sogin)
The ban was imposed by way of a resolution to amend the Environment Act of 1992. It "explicitly prohibits activities related to radioactive waste and used nuclear fuel which does not originate in Slovakia," parliamentary documents said. Furthermore, it places any such activities "in the context of pollution and environmental damage."
The original motion was raised by national council members Jaromír Šíbl, Boris Kollár, Alexandra Pivkova and Anna Zemanova, who sought to "contribute to the reduction of the burden and endangerment of the environment and at the same time to the prevention of the emergence of health risks." Without identifying specific risks or environmental harm stemming from current practices, their motion proposed to minimise any potential risk by completely banning the import of radioactive waste materials into the country
A resolution to accept the motion was passed by majority and will be officially communicated by Prime Minister Eduard Heger to President Zuzana Čaputová. It is effective retrospectively from 1 September but does not impact contracts made before that date.
Parliamentary documents said that impact on business was not considered as it would only prohibit future work, but Slovakian decommissioning specialist JAVYS has previously warned that this outcome would threaten jobs.
JAVYS undertakes radioactive waste processing for Slovakian and overseas clients. It currently has four contracts with Sogin of Italy to process a total of 865 tons of low-level radioactive material from the shut-down Caorso nuclear power plant. The work and the return of the materials are scheduled to be complete by 2023.
The company's CEO, Pavol Štuller, wrote in a staff magazine on 6 August that JAVYS had abandoned efforts to secure new contracts and a ban would "significantly affect the company's management." He warned, "I cannot rule out that it will also affect employment."
Transport authority change
Other changes to Slovakia's Environment Act in the same resolution have transferred competency for permitting the transport of radioactive material from the Ministry of Transport and Construction to the Public Health Office, which already has a leading role in radiation protection. The government said this would be a more coherent arrangement and more in line with other countries.
Researched and written by World Nuclear News
Young Slovenian Obama scholar spearheads the fight for water and equal rights
With a campaign against Slovenia's Water Act, activist and Obama Scholar Nika Kovac stopped her homeland's waters from being privatized. She also fights prejudice and campaigns for equal rights in several other areas.
Slovenian activist Nika Kovac campaigns on many fronts
Sunday, July 11, was a typical summer's day in Slovenia, with temperatures hovering just below 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit). In the evening, as a storm brewed over the capital, Ljubljana, Nika Kovac, the leader of the campaign against the Water Act, was listening to the first unofficial results of the referendum.
"The most important thing we have done with this referendum is to show politicians that we matter. We are here: Be afraid of us, because we are watching you, and we will continue to do so," she said.
More than 680,000 people – some 86.75% of all eligible voters – voted against the Water Act proposed by the Slovenian government, which opponents claimed would have permitted construction projects close to rivers, lakes and the sea. Nika Kovac on Slovenia's "Water referendum"
At 46.46%, turnout was one of the highest ever in a Slovenian referendum. This is especially significant considering that the referendum took place in the middle of summer and, according to activist Nika Kovac, the authorities strongly opposed the campaign and did everything they could to ensure the referendum would not count.
The campaigners faced considerable opposition; they were even the target of a physical attack that forced them to move offices. To ensure her safety, Kovac took taxis home at night. But the activists were not deterred and resolutely resisted what they felt were the authorities' lies: "Whatever the government announced, we checked the same day," says Kovac.
Activist and Obama scholar
Just recently, the Obama Foundation announced that Nika Kovac is among its fourth cohort of Obama scholars, one of 24 selected from around the world. She has also been selected for the Obama Foundation's Leaders: Europe program.
Anthropologist Nika Kovac was born in 1993. She belongs to a generation that has no experience of life in the former Yugoslavia and is not nostalgic about Slovenia's process of gaining independence.
For a better life now and in the future
"The past bores us," she says. "We are not interested in [Slovenian Prime Minister] Janez Jansa with his constant return to the themes of half-past history. He seems to us like an old man who is already a little alienated from everything that is reality. The youth cares only about how they will live in the future and how they can live better today."
This is one reason why Kovac became a founding member of the Initiative for Democratic Socialism after the anti-austerity protests of 2012 in Slovenia. But she didn't stay in politics for long: "I believed that a party could be established that is at the same time a movement, working in the field, talking to people, pushing for some change, and then I was disappointed," she says. As far as she is concerned, the party moved away from that goal.
Slovenia slipping down global gender gap rankings
She then founded the Research Institute of 8th March in response to an unsuccessful campaign to obtain equal rights for same-sex partnerships. The institute wants to connect people and voice criticism of inequality through the prism of gender. Its founders chose the name because March 8 is International Women's Day.
According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2021, Slovenia has slipped five places to 41st place in the global gender gap rankings. "In Slovenia, the poorest group of inhabitants are poor pensioners," says Kovac, adding that at the same time, poverty is also evident in the younger generation. Women alone cannot change the world
Kovac is a big critic of quotas as a solution to gender inequality. "I am convinced that nothing helps if a company has the same number of men and women on the board while exploiting third-world workers," she says.
At the same time, she feels that feminism always reflects the state of society and that there are many different ways for everyone to be a part of it. "There are also boys in our institute who are fighting for a better world. We women will not change the world alone," she says.
Campaigning on affirmative sexual consent
On February 8, 2018, the Research Institute of 8th March published its first story about sexual harassment and violence, heralding the start of the Slovenian #metoo (#jaztudi) campaign. So far, the institute has published the stories of more than 300 students, pensioners and others. It also analyzed existing legislation and found weaknesses in the system. A campaign was launched on the "only yes means yes" concept of consent.
In February 2021, Slovenian actress Mia Skrbinac revealed on TV Slovenia that she had been a victim of sexual harassment while studying at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television and highlighted the need for zero tolerance of all violence in society. The next day, the Research Institute of 8th March started collecting signatures for the amendment of the Criminal Code.
It succeeded, and on June 4, 2021, the parliament unanimously passed the amendment based on the "only yes means yes" concept. "For the first time, I had the feeling that there is one common value in Slovenia and that is sexual integrity." says Kovac. Death threats for activism
Inspired by the stories of brave and rebellious women in history, such as Emmeline Pankhurst, Frida Kahlo, Marie Curie and Rosa Parks, Kovac wrote a book entitled Brave Girls in which she focuses on women from Slovenia and elsewhere who worked hard to change the world. Although she is the director of the institute, Kovac always emphasizes its importance as a collective.
In her latest book, My Decision, she uses the life stories of women who have had an abortion experience to examine prejudice about abortion. "In Slovenia, abortion is economically accessible, but there is not much information about what happens to you during the process," she says.
Nika Kovac has received death threats for her activism. She says that although she is sometimes afraid, she doesn't want to give in to fear. For her, activism is a way of life: "It seems to me that this is the kind of fear that you feed the most by giving in to it. It seems to me that the most you can do is to keep fighting."
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh takes part in advanced voting during the Canadian federal election campaign in Burnaby, B.C., on Sept. 10. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)
The federal NDP is promising $214 billion in new spending over the next five years, according to a costing breakdown of its platform commitments released Saturday.
Much of that spending would be offset by $166 billion in revenue raised during the same period through a series of new taxes and other measures targeted at wealthy individuals and large, profitable corporations.
"I'm proud to say that we are the only party that has a plan that will ensure that we are not going to put any extra burden on working class people, on the middle class, on small businesses," NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters while campaigning in Vancouver.
"Our plan is the only one with a credible vision to [increase] revenue significantly and substantially so that we can invest in the programs that people need, the help that people need, at the same time as putting us in a better situation to reduce our debt."
Find out who's ahead in the latest polls with our Poll Tracker.
The calculation, which is partly based on projections from Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), estimates how much NDP platform promises would cost over the next five years, and how much revenue new tax measures would bring into federal coffers.
It attaches specific dollar projections to policy pledges contained in the NDP platform, which the party released earlier this summer, but which was criticized as being long on ambition and short on details.
The PBO in its reports acknowledged uncertainty when it came to the revenue figures.
Singh conceded some uncertainty about the plan, saying it "hasn't been done before" but he argued it's "a real path forward" that "Canadians believe makes sense."
WATCH | Singh pressed on uncertainty around NDP platform costing:
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh acknowledges there is some uncertainty with some of his platform's revenue projections, but says it's because what he's proposing "hasn't been done before." 1:21
No immediate plan to get back to balance
The costed platform calls for $40 billion in additional spending for 2021-22. It predicts a steep deficit of $145 billion in 2021-22, which would shrink to $53 billion the next year before declining gradually to $34 billion in 2025-26.
There is no immediate plan to get back to budgetary balance, but party officials point to the declining debt-to-GDP ratio — which would go from 48% in 2021-22 to 45.8% by 2025-26 — as an indication that the party has a clear path back to balance.
According to party officials speaking on background, the NDP promises are above and beyond what was contained in the 2021-22 budget proposed by the Liberal government and passed by Parliament earlier this year. Even so, the party is projecting lower annual deficits in most years when compared with the Liberal and Conservative platforms, in part, because of an abundance of revenue-generating proposals.
Unlike the Conservative Party platform, which proposes cancelling the Liberal's big-ticket promise to spend $30 billion to build a national child-care program, the NDP plans to honour the existing deals the Liberals have signed with several provinces and to finish building a national system.
The most expensive line item in the NDP costing is $68 billion in new health-care spending over the next five years, which would fund universal prescription drug coverage, expand long-term care and home-care options, and cover dental care and mental health expenses for many Canadians on the lower end of the income spectrum.
The party says this would bring its platform the closest to meeting the provincial and territorial premiers' demand to have the federal government cover 35 per cent of all health-care costs — which would amount to increasing the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) by $28 billion per year. (The Conservative platform would inject $60 billion into health care over the next 10 years with no strings attached, although most of that money would be coming in the latter half of the decade. The Liberals would create a dedicated mental health transfer and say they are willing to negotiate increases the CHT).
The NDP is also proposing to spend $26 billion to fight climate change and support workers who may need to transition out of high-polluting industries such as oil and gas.
In addition, the party would redirect $35 billion already budgeted for projects with the Canadian Infrastructure Bank into a "climate bank," which would have a mandate to boost investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency and low-carbon technology.
Another $30 billion would go toward efforts to achieve reconciliation with Indigenous people. More than half of that amount would be invested to bring the federal government in compliance with a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling by compensating First Nations families and children who were removed from their homes and placed in the child welfare system.
The release of the NDP's platform costing comes on the second day of advance voting, with nine days left in the campaign before election day.
When asked whether voters would have benefited from having more time to review the party's numbers, Singh responded that Canadians won't be surprised by what they see.
"We have been very consistent that we want to invest in people,"Singh said. "We've said for a long time that we believe we've got to lift up people. We've done that throughout the pandemic.We've proposed that before the election."
New revenue streams
Below are the revenue raising measures and the amounts the party projects each would bring in:
$60 billion through a 1% annual tax on households with wealth over $10 million.
$44 billion through raising the capital gains inclusion rate to 75% from 50% .
$25 billion through raising the corporate income tax rate to 18% from 15%. This would apply only to businesses that make more than $500,000 in profit.
$14 billion through an "excess profit tax" on companies that made large profits during the COVID-19 pandemic. This would apply to only some companies that make profit in excess of $10 million per year.
$12 billion through cracking down on tax havens. The Canada Revenue Agency would receive $100 million in extra funding to expand its capability to track down such funds.
All of the above revenue items have been costed by the PBO, according to party officials.
Doug Ford's government has lost more than a dozen court cases. Here's a list
WHY APPOINTED JUDGES ARE BETTER THAN ELECTED ONES
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Judges have repeatedly ruled against the province in challenges to its legislation
Ontario Premier Doug Ford's government has lost a string of court challenges against its legislation. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)
Premier Doug Ford's government lost yet another court case this week. It has become a bit of a trend.
Since taking office in 2018, Ontario's Progressive Conservative government has fought and failed in a succession of high-profile lawsuits. Most of the cases have involved legal challenges against new policies or legislation.
Why is the government losing court cases with such frequency?
One theory comes from Michael Bryant, executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, a former attorney general of Ontario in Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government.
Michael Bryant, executive director and general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, served as attorney general of Ontario under the Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty. (Jacqueline Hansen/CBC)
Bryant says public interest groups nationwide are showing a greater willingness to defy Canada's tendency to not be litigious.
"It's a legitimate means to access our constitution, to go to the courts, and we're doing it more than ever," Bryant said in an interview.
He also believes the Ford government is giving groups in Ontario plenty of ammunition for court battles by bringing forward "a lot of unconstitutional legislation, and I don't mean that flippantly."
Bryant says aligning legislation with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms "is less important to this government."
Ford's Attorney General Doug Downey declined a CBC News request for an interview to respond to the claims, but in a statement his press secretary said the Ontario government is involved in thousands of lawsuits each year.
"Cherry picking 14 cases out of these many thousands may seem convenient for opposition members, but it shows how little they understand about the actual business of governing on behalf of Ontarians," said Natasha Krstajic in the statement.
Doug Downey is Ontario's Attorney General. (Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press)
CBC News has compiled the following list of cases the Ford government has lost in court (along with one major case the government has won, currently under appeal at the Supreme Court of Canada).
1. Carbon pricing
Arguably the highest profile loss for the Ford government was a case launched by the government itself: Ontario's Charter challenge of the federal Liberals' carbon pricing program. Ford campaigned on a promise to fight what he called the carbon tax, and budgeted $30 million in taxpayer funds for the court battle.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled the federal government can impose nationwide carbon pricing standards, ending Ontario Premier Doug Ford's legal battle against what he called the carbon tax. (John Rieti/CBC)
In a decision released on Sept. 8, a three-judge panel of Ontario's Superior Court found the government acted "unreasonably and unlawfully" by failing to consult the public in advance of enacting Bill 197, the COVID-19 Economic Recovery Act.
The legislation changes the rules for Ministerial Zoning Orders, which are used to fast-track land development projects. The judges said the minister of municipal affairs was bound by the Environmental Bill of Rights to consult Ontarians before making the changes.
Gurratan Singh, the New Democrat MPP for Brampton East, is the party's attorney general critic. (Elections Ontario)
"There's a theme here, clearly," said Gurratan Singh, the NDP attorney general critic, in an interview this week. "Doug Ford will do whatever it takes to keep his big developer friends or big business friends happy, despite the cost it is to the public or despite how legal it is."
4. Cap and trade
In a similar finding in October 2019, an Ontario Divisional Court panel found the Ford government broke the law when it scrapped the previous Liberal government's cap-and-trade system without first conducting public consultation. The decision was effectively moot because the ruling did not force the province to reinstate the program, which used financial incentives to force companies to reduce carbon emissions. The case was brought by the environmental group Greenpeace.
5. Gas pump stickers
The Ontario Superior Court struck down the Ford government's policy that forced gas stations to post stickers vilifying the federal Liberal government's carbon tax.
In a September 2020 ruling, Justice Edward M. Morgan said the government cannot legislate a requirement that private retailers post material designed to campaign against a political party or another level of government.
The Ford government made it mandatory for service stations to place anti-carbon tax stickers like this on their gas pumps, and threatened them with fines for non-compliance. However in September 2020, an Ontario court struck down the law as unconstitutional. (Kate Bueckert/CBC)
In an adjudication decision in 2019, Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner ordered the government to release the documents. The government then asked Ontario's Divisional Court to overturn the decision, but lost that case too in 2020, and was ordered to pay the CBC $17,000 in legal costs.
The government then took the matter to the Ontario Court of Appeal. The case was heard in August and it's not yet known when the judges will render their decision.
7. Student fees opt-out
The government's Student Choice Initiative, announced in January 2019, would have allowed post-secondary students to opt out of paying fees for services deemed "non-essential," such as funding for student unions and campus newspapers.
Successive court rulings went against the government, most recently in August by the province's top court. The measure targeting fees for student associations was "a profound interference in university autonomy," said the decision by a three-judge panel of the Ontario Court of Appeal.
The court also ordered the government to pay $20,000 in legal costs to the Canadian Federation of Students.
Student federations won a court challenge against the Ford government's move to make most post-secondary student activity fees optional. The groups argued it unfairly targeted student unions and constituted a politically-motivated attack that threatened the autonomy of universities. (John Last/CBC)
8. Failing to consult with First Nation
In a ruling released Sept. 1, an Ontario Superior Court judge found that the province failed in its constitutional duty to consult with the Ginoogaming First Nation before issuing a mineral exploration permit in its traditional territory.
The judge granted an injunction against mining activities in Wiisinin Zaahgi'igan, an area considered sacred by the people of Ginoogaming, located about 300 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay. The injunction is temporary, with the judge ordering the First Nation and the province to conduct meaningful consultation and report back in January 2022.
9. Shielding government from negligence suits
The government lost its appeal of a $30-million class action award related to Ontario jails' use of administrative segregation, a form of solitary confinement. The Ford government fought the case in part by invoking new legislation it had introduced in 2019 that aimed to give the province broader immunity from negligence lawsuits. However, in its March 2021 decision, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the operations of government cannot be shielded from liability claims.
10. Heritage building demolition
In January 2021, a community group won a court injunction that stopped the provincial government from demolishing a group of heritage buildings at the former Dominion Foundry complex in Toronto's West Donlands to clear the way for a new housing development. In August, the city of Toronto reached a deal with the province to preserve two of the buildings considered to have the greatest heritage value.
A Toronto community group won a court injunction in January 2021 to stop the provincial government from demolishing a group of heritage buildings at the former Dominion Foundry complex to clear the way for a new housing development (Submitted by Evan Madill)
11. OHIP coverage for snowbirds
The Superior Court of Justice ordered the government in September 2020 to reinstate the Out of Country Travellers' Program, which provided partial coverage for medical expenses incurred outside Canada, through the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). The Ford government cancelled the program in early 2020, but the court ruled the move violates the Canada Health Act.
12. Wind farm cancellation
In May 2020, an Ontario Superior Court panel of judges overturned the Ford government's cancellation of the Nation Rise wind energy project near Cornwall. The judges said the move by then-minister of the environment Jeff Yurek to revoke approvals for the project was "unreasonable" and "procedurally unfair."
13. Tesla electric vehicle rebates
In July 2018, just days after taking office, the Ford government scrapped an incentive program offering rebates of up to $14,000 for purchases of electric cars. There was a two-month grace period for those who had ordered cars from dealers but the incentive ended immediately for anyone who ordered their vehicle directly from the manufacturer. That specifically hit Tesla buyers.
In July 2018, the Ford government scrapped Ontario's incentive program offering rebates of up to $14,000 for purchases of electric cars. (Ben Margot/The Associated Press)
14. Pay equity for midwives
Ontario's midwives had waged a long-running legal battle over pay equity. The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario ordered the province in early 2020 to provide midwives a back-pay increase of 20 per cent for the years 2011 to 2015. The Ford government took the case to a higher court to try to get the order overturned. In a June 2020 ruling, the Ontario Divisional Court upheld the pay equity award.
Ford's biggest court victory
The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled in September 2019 that Ford's government had the "legitimate authority" to cut the size of Toronto city council a few months before the 2018 municipal election.
The City of Toronto took the case to the Supreme Court of Canada. During the hearing in March, lawyers for the city argued that the Ford government "trampled" on democracy with the move, while lawyers for the province argued the ensuing election was free and fair. The court has yet to indicate when it will render its judgment.
New book debunks Winnipeg-lab conspiracy theory but questions collaboration with Chinese military scientist Journalist Elaine Dewar found 2019 virus shipment from National Microbiology Lab had no link to coronavirus
Karen Pauls · CBC News · Posted: Aug 31, 2021 9:00 AM CT | Last Updated: September 2
Xiangguo Qiu was escorted out of the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg in July 2019 along with her husband, Keding Cheng, months after the Public Health Agency of Canada reported a 'policy breach' at the lab to the RCMP. The two virologists were fired in January 2021. The RCMP is still investigating, and the reasons behind the firing remain a mystery to the public. (CBC)
A new book concludes co-operation between Canada's National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg and China's Wuhan Institute of Virology played no part in the origin of the coronavirus pandemic but raises questions about links between one of the researchers fired from the lab and a prominent Chinese virologist affiliated with the military.
Toronto-based freelance journalist Elaine Dewar says she set out to investigate the hypothesis that the coronavirus was leaked from the Wuhan lab by looking at the science and financial and geopolitical interests related to the theory.
As part of that, she looked into whether an approved shipment of Ebola and henipah viruses in March 2019 from the Winnipeg lab to Wuhan had anything to do with the pandemic after conspiracy theories suggesting it did surfaced online.
Months after that shipment, in July 2019, NML scientists Xiangguo Qiu and husband Keding Cheng were escorted from the Winnipeg lab and had their security clearances revoked. They were fired last January, and to date, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), which runs Canada's only Level 4 biosafety lab, has not explained why.
Dewar did not find any connections between the 2019 shipment and the pandemic. CBC News has also debunked conspiracy theories making those connections.
"That particular conspiracy theory is nonsense, and there is absolutely no evidence to support it," said Dewar, whose book On the Origin of the Deadliest Pandemic in 100 Years: An Investigation comes out Tuesday.
"But there is evidence to support a very close link between the WIV and certain people at the NML."
WATCH | Journalist Elaine Dewar on some of the connections between labs in Winnipeg and Wuhan
Journalist Elaine Dewar outlines some of the connections between Canada's National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg and China's Wuhan Institute of Virology over the years. 2:34
Co-operation with military virologist
Dewar found that Qiu worked closely with Wei Chen, a prominent Chinese virologist who holds the rank of major-general in the People's Liberation Army, and tested Chen's Ebola vaccine at the Winnipeg lab.
There is no evidence that the work went beyond routine scientific collaboration, but Dewar says the co-operation raises questions about the kind of collaborations the sensitive government lab should undertake.
"When you have civilian researchers studying Ebola, how it works, how people are infected by it, what might be done to protect them against infection, that's one thing. When you have military scientists involved, it becomes a larger question because it can be weaponized," Dewar said during a recent interview at her Toronto home.
"When you have a relationship with a country which is unfriendly … you have to ask the question, do you want leading Chinese experts having access to a lab which requires secret clearance in this country?"
Dewar also found that Qiu authored several scientific papers since she was fired from the lab. She says that suggests Qiu continued to have access to NML data, though PHAC says people who no longer work for the agency can still affiliate themselves with it in academic publications that reflect research done while they were there.
One paper, published in March 2020 and co-authored by Qiu, Chen and virologists from NML and the military-affiliated Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, drew on Ebola-related experiments performed while Qiu was at NML.
Chen, who was listed as senior author along with Qiu, is considered a national hero for her work on Ebola vaccines. She and her research team at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing are also leading China's coronavirus response.
"When this paper was submitted (in January 2020), Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng had been on suspension for six months. Did PHAC and the RCMP fail to notice that they continued to work with a leading military medical … figure in China even as the RCMP investigated them?" Dewar writes in her book.
She maintains the loss of Qiu's security clearance should have meant she no longer had access to the NML's scientific work.
Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Wei Chen, top row far left, a celebrated vaccine researcher and a major-general in the People's Liberation Army, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in September 2020. Chen is a prominent vaccine researcher whose team at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences is leading China's pandemic response. She collaborated with Qiu on a vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus.
(Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)
In a statement provided to CBC News, PHAC said security clearance is mandatory for anyone accessing government networks or data but that access would not have been necessary to publish work based on past research done at the lab.
"All access is blocked if someone's security status/clearance is suspended or revoked," it said. "The analysis and write-up phase of the scientific process can take months to years following the experimental work ending. Final review of completed manuscripts does not require access to the laboratory or network.
"While Dr. Qiu is no longer employed by the Public Health Agency of Canada, her scientific contributions while at PHAC remain."
CBC News was not able to reach Qiu or Chen for comment.
China needed help setting up Level 4 lab
While CBC News and other media have reported on the scientific collaboration between Qiu and Chinese researchers, some of whom have military affiliations, Dewar's book provides some historical context.
China has large investments in regions of Africa impacted by Ebola, which is why it was looking for effective vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests.
However, Ebola research must be done in a Level 4 lab, and China did not have one until 2018. A Level 4 virology facility is equipped to handle the most serious and deadly human and animal diseases. The Winnipeg lab is one of only a handful in North America capable of handling pathogens requiring the highest level of containment, such as Ebola.
CBC News previously broke the story that Qiu had travelled repeatedly to Wuhan in 2017-18 to help set up the newly built Level 4 lab there, develop safety and operational protocols and train staff.
Meanwhile, scientists from Canada's national lab were doing ground-breaking work on Ebola.
In 2018, Qiu and her then-boss Gary Kobinger won a Governor General's Innovation Award for their work on ZMapp, an Ebola treatment that helped save lives during the outbreaks in West Africa between 2014-2016.
Dewar found research involving Qiu and Chen going back to at least 2015 that shows Qiu tested Chen's Ebola vaccine at the Winnipeg lab. WATCH | Ebola survivor visits Winnipeg lab in 2016, thanks Qiu for vaccine work:
Xiangguo Qiu and staff at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg meet Junietta Macauley from Sierra Leone, whose life was saved by ZMapp, the Ebola vaccine they helped develop. 3:46
Details of firing still unclear
Meanwhile, the details of Qiu and Cheng's firing remain a mystery.
For months, opposition MPs have been demanding PHAC turn over unredacted documents pertaining to their dismissal, which PHAC had said was related to a "policy breach," and while the government recently dropped its attempt to block the release of the documents, Dewar is not confident we'll ever have all the answers.
"We have, instead of truth, a pile of cover-up going on," she said.
WATCH | Opposition presses government for details of NML firings:
Federal government grilled on microbiologists stripped of security clearance
After two scientists working at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg were stripped of their security clearance, national security experts have raised concerns about the possibility of espionage and, on Wednesday, MPs demanded answers in the House of Commons. 2:03
PHAC did confirm the NML underwent a physical security vulnerability assessment in May 2019 as part of ongoing reviews but said its screening and security procedures have not been updated independent of the Treasury Board Secretariat policy on government security it is subject to.
May 2019 is when PHAC referred this case to the Manitoba RCMP, which confirmed the investigation is still ongoing.
In this compelling whodunnit, Elaine Dewar reads the science, follows the money, and connects the geopolitical interests to the spin.
When the first TV newscast described a SARS-like flu affecting a distant Chinese metropolis, investigative journalist Elaine Dewar started asking questions: Was SARS-CoV-2 something that came from nature, as leading scientists insisted, or did it come from a lab, and what role might controversial experiments have played in its development? Why was Wuhan the pandemic's ground zero—and why, on the other side of the Atlantic, had two researchers been marched out of a lab in Winnipeg by the RCMP? Why were governments so slow to respond to the emerging pandemic, and why, now, is the government of China refusing to cooperate with the World Health Organization? And who, or what, is DRASTIC?
Locked down in Toronto with the world at a standstill, Dewar pored over newspapers and magazines, preprints and peer-reviewed journals, email chains and blacked-out responses to access to information requests; she conducted Zoom interviews and called telephone numbers until someone answered as she hunted down the truth of the virus’s origin. In this compelling whodunnit, she reads the science, follows the money, connects the geopolitical interests to the spin—and shows how leading science journals got it wrong, leaving it to interested citizens and junior scientists to pull out the truth.
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A shipment of radioactive resins and sludges leaves Italy for Slovakia in 2020 (Image: Sogin)
