The Winnipeg Lab Story We Almost Forgot

 The Winnipeg Lab Story We Almost Forgot

There are some stories from the beginning of COVID-19 that disappeared beneath the enormous amount of information, misinformation, fear and political fighting that followed.

This is one I don't want forgotten.

It is not a story about proving where COVID-19 came from. It is a story about two scientists, Canada's highest-security infectious-disease laboratory, China, virus research, national security concerns — and a government that kept Canadians waiting for answers.

The scientists were Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, both Canadian citizens originally from China. Qiu was a highly regarded scientist at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg, a facility capable of working with some of the world's most dangerous pathogens. Cheng also worked there.

In July 2019 — months before the first recognized COVID-19 outbreak — the RCMP escorted both scientists out of the Winnipeg laboratory. Their security clearances were eventually revoked, and in January 2021 they were terminated by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

For a long time, Canadians were given very few details about why.

Then there was Wuhan

One of the facts that made the story particularly difficult to ignore was that the Winnipeg laboratory had established scientific relationships with institutions in China.

On March 31, 2019, the Winnipeg NML transferred live samples of Ebola and Henipah viruses to the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

That transfer was documented by Parliament. It was not evidence that COVID-19 was transferred from Canada, and it is important not to turn that fact into something it does not prove.

But the timing is remarkable.

Three months later, Qiu and Cheng were escorted from Canada's highest-security microbiology laboratory.

And then, several months after that, the world would hear the name Wuhan in an entirely different and terrifying context.

What were they actually accused of?

This is where the story became much more serious than the rumours circulating on Facebook in 2020.

Canadian parliamentary documents released years later describe concerns involving security procedures, intellectual property, undisclosed relationships with Chinese institutions and the handling of sensitive scientific information.

According to CSIS assessments summarized in the parliamentary record, investigators concluded that Qiu had transferred scientific knowledge and materials to China and that her activities created a national-security concern.

There were also concerns about Cheng's activities and his knowledge of Qiu's relationships and conduct.

The parliamentary record says CSIS had assessed that, if the two were returned to the Winnipeg laboratory, they could potentially disclose sensitive or classified information without authorization.

Their security clearances were revoked.

They were eventually fired.

These are not claims taken from a Facebook meme. They appear in Canadian parliamentary records and government documents.

And yet, there is something we still cannot honestly say

We cannot say that these scientists created COVID-19.

We cannot say that SARS-CoV-2 was transferred from Winnipeg to Wuhan.

We cannot say that their removal from the laboratory proves a connection to the pandemic.

The evidence does not establish those things.

That distinction matters.

But the opposite claim — that there was “nothing unusual” happening — doesn't fit the documentary record either.

There were investigations.

There were security concerns.

There were relationships with Chinese institutions.

There was the transfer of live Ebola and Henipah viruses to Wuhan.

There were concerns about intellectual property and information security.

There was an RCMP removal from the laboratory.

There were revoked security clearances.

And there was a long fight in Parliament over access to the government's documents.

Why didn't Canadians know all of this in 2020?

This may be the part I find most troubling.

During the first years of COVID-19, Canadians were trying to understand an unprecedented pandemic while governments around the world were making enormous decisions affecting our lives.

Meanwhile, the details surrounding the Winnipeg laboratory case were largely unavailable.

In 2021, the House of Commons Special Committee on Canada-China Relations demanded documents concerning the transfer of Ebola and Henipah viruses to Wuhan and the subsequent termination of Qiu and Cheng.

The government initially provided heavily redacted material, and Parliament continued fighting for access to the underlying documents.

It wasn't until February 2024 that a large collection of documents was finally tabled in Parliament.

That means some of the information Canadians were arguing about on social media during the pandemic was information that the public simply didn't have access to yet.

So what should we remember?

Not a conspiracy.

Not a convenient political story.

Not a claim that has never been proven.

Remember the documented facts.

Canada operated one of the world's most sophisticated high-containment laboratories in Winnipeg.

Two scientists working there developed extensive relationships with Chinese scientific institutions.

Live Ebola and Henipah virus samples were transferred from Canada to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in March 2019.

The scientists were removed from the Winnipeg laboratory only months later.

Canadian security agencies investigated them.

Their security clearances were revoked.

They were eventually fired.

And Canadians spent years trying to obtain the government's explanation.

That is already an extraordinary story.

And perhaps the most important lesson is this:

When governments keep information secret during a crisis, people fill the empty space with rumours.

Some rumours will be ridiculous.

Some will be wrong.

But secrecy makes it much harder for ordinary people to know which is which.

I didn't write much during the early COVID years. There was so much fear, so much conflicting information and so many claims flying around that it was difficult to know what could actually be trusted.

Now, years later, some of the documents are finally public.

So I'm looking back.

Not to rewrite history.

Not to claim we know more than we do.

But because history has a way of disappearing when we stop asking questions.

And this is one Canadian story I don't think we should forget.

10 reflective questions

1. Why were these scientists removed from Canada's highest-security laboratory months before the COVID-19 pandemic began?

2. Why did Canadians have to wait years to learn more about the investigations?

3. What should governments disclose during a public-health crisis, even when national security is involved?

4. How does secrecy affect public trust?

5. Can we separate legitimate scientific collaboration from legitimate national-security concerns?

6. Why were live Ebola and Henipah virus samples transferred to Wuhan in 2019?

7. What did Canadian officials know in 2019 that the public did not?

8. How should we evaluate information when facts are released years after an event?

9. What questions about the Winnipeg laboratory still remain unanswered?

10. How much of our understanding of COVID's early history may change as more records become public?

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