Trudeau Allowed PRC-Linked Scientists to Infiltrate Canada's Top Lab

This week, we dive into how a PRC-linked scientists were allowed access into Canada's top lab, Ethics Commissioner delays, GC Strategies ordered to appear in front Parliamentary Committee, and more.

PRC-Linked Scientists Infiltrated Canada’s Top Lab: CSIS

A People’s Republic of China scientists, under the watch of the Liberal government, was allowed to infiltrate the Government of Canada’s top lab in Winnipeg, according to newly released documents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS). 

Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were ordered to leave the lab in July 2019 and were stripped of their security clearances. However, their dismissals were not made public until January 2021. The Level-4 National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, where Qui and Cheng worked, is equipped to handle the most serious and deadly human and animal diseases, such as Ebola.

The newly released documents revealed that Qui used the Winnipeg lab "as a base to assist China to improve its capability to fight highly-pathogenic pathogens" and "achieved brilliant results." 

As reported by CBC News: 

CSIS accused Qiu of being associated with multiple "talent programs" administered and funded by various Chinese entities.

Those programs are set up to "boost China's national technological capabilities and may pose a serious threat to research institutions, including government research facilities, by incentivizing economic espionage and theft of intellectual property," said CSIS in the report. [Emphasis Added]

These findings are unsettling and raise very serious questions about the Liberal government’s commitment to protect our national security and our industrial secrets.

Based on CSIS’s assessment, the Trudeau Liberal government allowed a person who is “a very serious and credible danger” and “a realistic and credible threat to Canada’s economic security” to access and compromise our country’s top-level laboratory, which works with some of the world’s most dangerous viruses. To make matters worse, the Trudeau Liberals fought to cover this up, including defying four parliamentary orders and taking the Speaker of the House of Commons to court to avoid public disclosure. 

At the time, it was conservatives who were demanding the release of the documents and using parliamentary rules to make it happen. The 2021 federal election stopped short those efforts. At the time the Liberal government claimed there were national security reasons to breach parliamentary orders for disclosure but the release of the documents shows that, in fact, the government was desperate to avoid embarrassment and political damage instead of true harm to our national security.

One thing is for certain: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is not worth the cost. To our national security or our industrial and economic secrets. His handling of the Winnipeg Laboratory issue, entirely during his time as prime minister, was reckless, careless and incompetent. 

Watch Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s comments on the Winnipeg Lab Documents: here.

Trudeau Government Fails to Consult on Ethics Commissioner Appointment 

It had been over a year since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a permanent ethics commissioner to hold him and his government accountable. Konrad Von Finckenstein, who had been serving as the interim ethics commissioner since August, was appointed to the permanent job on Thursday, where he will serve a seven-year term. 

The Trudeau government waited until the 11th hour to appoint Von Finckenstein as the permanent commissioner. His interim appointment was to expire on the same day, Thursday, February 29th.

Our parliamentary traditions of decades past has been that the government-of-the-day collects a group of potential candidates and consults broadly and deeply with party leaders on Parliament Hill. After all, the ethics commissioner is an Officer of Parliament and they hold us all accountable on your behalf. The person chosen should be absolutely beyond approach and the prime minister should obtain the consent of other leaders, on behalf of their caucus of MPs, to decide on the best name. This time only one name was brought forward.

Martine Richard, the previous interim ethics commissioner Liberal pick, resigned in April after Conservatives criticized the appointment as having an obvious conflict of interest. She was the sister-in-law of a top Liberal cabinet minister and confidant to the prime minister. These appointments are critical and even the perception of a conflict of interest should bar a person from being suggested as a candidate. The Liberal government failed to meet this high bar in that case.

This meant that from April to August, there was no independent ethics watchdog to hold Trudeau and his government accountable since the ethics commissioner’s office cannot conclude or launch investigations into wrongdoing by Members of Parliament or other civil servants when there is a vacancy. 

I supported this latest ethics commissioner appointment despite only one name being recommended. Von Finckenstein has no obvious conflicts and has served well in the interim position. I am pleased to see this latest permanent commissioner is not related to any Trudeau family members or cabinet minister. Parliamentary watchdog roles such as for ethics oversight should always follow our traditions to ensure these individuals have the broadest support among MPs so they can do their jobs well on behalf of Canadians.

GC Strategies Owners Ordered to Testify over ArriveCAN, and More

The owners of GC Strategies, the firm at the centre of the ArriveCAN scandal, have been summoned to testify before a parliamentary committee as to why they wasted $19 million taxpayers’ dollars for a useless app. 

Conservatives put forward a motion on Monday, February 26, which was agreed on unanimously by all parties, for GC Strategies owners Kristian Firth and Darren Anthony to testify to a parliamentary committee within 21 days of the motion passing. If they do not agree to the summons and appear, the Sergeant-at-Arms, will arrest Firth and Anthony and compel them to appear. The summons from Parliament has the same power and effect as one issued by a Canadian Court. In fact, all Canadian courts have the power to compel testimony and evidence directly from Parliament. The last time these two individuals testified before a parliamentary committee was on October 20, 2023.

GC Strategies is an IT company that did no actual IT work on the ArriveCAN contract. Instead, they subcontracted the work to multiple other firms, costing taxpayers $19 million. Since 2015, GC Strategies has received tens of millions of dollars from different government departments, but it is unknown whether they did any work on these projects. Additionally, it is alleged by whistleblowers they colluded with government bureaucrats to write up the request for proposal and contract that they eventually bid on and obtained.

The ArriveCAN app was originally budgeted for $80,000 but ballooned to nearly $60 million. However, the cost of the app could be much higher due to poor bookkeeping from the Trudeau government, according to the Auditor General. 

Thankfully, this past Wednesday, Conservatives passed a different motion along with the other opposition parties, with the Liberals opposing, giving Trudeau until March 18, 2024 to report how much money he spent on the ArriveCAN app and all associated costs. That motion also contained a provision that ArriveCAN funds be recovered within 100 days and for Trudeau to demonstrate how those taxpayer funds have been repaid. 

Rare Disease Day on February 29

Rare Disease Day, of all days, happens to occur on February 29—a very fitting date.

Canadians who live with rare diseases are faced with enormous difficulties. These include misdiagnosis, unnecessary surgeries, social isolation, financial hardship, lack of treatment options and early death, according to the Canadian Organization on Rare Disorders. 

About 1 in 12 Canadians, two-thirds of whom are children, are affected by a rare disease. 

My family has also been affected by rare diseases. Three of my children have a rare and chronic kidney condition called Alport Syndrome, and my youngest daughter passed away from Patau’s syndrome in 2018. 

Watch as I commemorate Rare Disease Day by reciting a Haiku, something I rarely do, in Parliament:

Watch: 

NDP-Liberal Pharmacare Legislation that Isn’t

On Thursday, one day before the self-imposed deadline to maintain the NDP-Liberal coalition deal, the Liberals unveiled the “foundational principles” of a national drug coverage plan under Bill C-64. This is not national pharmacare and is in fact, a crass and highly political move to give both of their political parties a face saving piece of legislation to make claims they held up their promises.

Even though the Liberals did not give the NDP what they demanded in their coalition agreement, the NDP appears to be turning a blind eye to the deceitful content of the Liberal legislation.

There are many unresolved issues with implementing a program of this scale. No province has said outright whether they’ll implement the program, while Alberta and Quebec have stated they would opt out. The Liberals and NDP have also yet to reveal how much the program would cost, but all signs indicate it being costly. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has said the program could cost tens of billions of dollars, something which Canadians cannot afford after all of Trudeau’s reckless spending over the past eight years. 

This new legislation only covers two types of medication and therapies, for those with diabetes and contraceptives. This is not a national system. The legislation also does not have new spending mechanisms within it. We know this because it does not come attached with what is known as a ministerial warrant from the finance minister. Ministerial warrants are required for any legislation that spends above and beyond anything in the budget approved by Parliament. There is no new money, no reallocation of spending. Again, for supporters of national pharmacare (of which I am not) this is not legislation introducing such a system; its more like a suggested payment plan system without any money attached to it for two conditions.

The NDP will now continue to give its unconditional support to the Liberal government which will prolong the Trudeau government’s time in power. The debate on this piecemeal legislation on pharmacare will no doubt be more about the merits of the overall future system. I look forward to participating to bring forward the views of residents who want access to cutting edge treatments and medication which the current, and a true one-size-fits-all national pharmacare, will make worse by centralizing control into one group of “experts” who are detached from the day-to-day lives of patients, especially rare disease patients and their families.