The head of the Public Health Agency of Canada refused to explain to a House of Commons committee the specific reasons why a prominent Chinese Canadian scientist and her husband were fired by the country’s top laboratory after a police investigation.
PHAC president Iain Stewart was grilled by the Committee on Canada-China Relations on March 22 about the termination of the two biologists from their employment at the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg, Canada’s highest-security Level 4 laboratory, back in 2019.
PHAC president given until Friday to explain why two scientists let go
The president of the Public Health Agency of Canada has been given until the end of the week to explain why two Canadian government scientists were let go 18 months after being escorted from Canada’s only Level 4 laboratory.
Iain Stewart came under fire Monday from opposition MPs after he repeatedly refused to explain why PHAC terminated the employment of Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, in January.
Stewart told the special committee on Canada-China relations that he could not provide details due to privacy issues and “security with respect to the investigation” still being conducted by the RCMP.
