Canada-China Relations Committee on June 14th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Madam Minister, you're muted.

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

My apologies.

Actually I didn't speak to that, but I will turn to Dr. Poliquin to speak about clearances and students, and the lab in general.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

At this point, given how long it has gone on, you should be aware of what is happening in this case. I imagine you have done a detailed summary of what went on there.

Do you, yourself, know what is going on and what happened? Why was accreditation given?

Certainly Dr. Poliquin knows, but I imagine you also know.

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Actually, you're implying that I would be directly interfering with the operational aspects of the lab, which would be an overreach on my part. So I will speak to Dr. Poliquin about the processes of the lab.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Excuse me, Mr. Chair.

I am simply asking the Minister of Health whether she is aware that the individual in question, Feihu Yan, was given accreditations. Does she know this? Does she know how it happened?

If she doesn't know it, we can go to Dr. Poliquin.

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Again, I will turn to Dr. Poliquin to speak about the lab processes in general. In terms of individuals, though, under question, those are part of the documents turned over to the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians.

Dr. Poliquin, in general?

[Dr. Guillaume Poliquin]

Thank you.

Regarding individuals in particular, we are not able to discuss personal details.

Regarding the accreditation process, everyone who comes to work in the laboratory must undergo a security clearance process before starting.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Can you confirm that at present, no one directly or indirectly related to the communist Chinese regime is working in Winnipeg?

[Dr. Guillaume Poliquin]

Mr. Chair, if I understood correctly, the member is asking a question about all employees of the laboratory?

[The Chair, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Absolutely. Perhaps you can answer in three words.

[Dr. Guillaume Poliquin]

I would like to reiterate that we have a uniform security clearance process for everyone who comes to work in the laboratory.

[The Chair, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Paul-Hus.

We'll now go to Ms. Yip, for five minutes, please.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

This is National Public Service Week, so I want to thank the public servants, which include senior officials from the PHAC, who have made almost 30 committee appearances.

I also want to thank the Minister for her hard work, ensuring that Canadians have been kept safe during this pandemic.

Minister, we keep hearing two different stories from opposition members. On the one hand, they are deeply concerned about national security threats; on the other hand, they are asking for unredacted documents to be publicly shared when it has been made clear that there are clear national security concerns about doing so.

Are you concerned about the opposition's attitude towards national security concerns in this situation?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Thank you very much MP Yip, and thank you for all of your hard work during the pandemic. It's been an honour to work with you as you work so hard to serve your constituents.

It is, again, important that we respect the documents in a way that does protect the privacy and confidentiality of the information contained within them. We have a committee of parliamentarians that is appropriate to review security documents of this nature.

It is concerning to see opposition members play a game with national security. In fact, Canadians expect us to do a very good job of protecting national security. That's exactly what that committee is designed to do, to review documents that are sensitive in nature in way that protects the information and protects the health and safety of Canadians.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

In your opening statement, you underscored that there are matters under consideration by the Speaker of the House on the same issues.

What do you mean by the same issues?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Obviously, this committee has asked for those documents. The Speaker is considering those requests. I have attempted to fully comply with the request of this committee to provide information in a way that is appropriate, including by offering my officials to appear a number of times to answer questions.

We will continue to do that. We'll continue to make ourselves available to this committee and any committee of the House and, in fact, any committee of the Senate. We will also use appropriate mechanisms to deliver documents in fully unredacted ways, so that committees can pursue studies in ways that respect privacy and security considerations.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Thank you for making yourself so readily available.

My next question is for Dr. Poliquin. Right now, the NML is conducting more than 100 research studies on COVID-19.

Could you elaborate on some of these studies that you think will be helpful in combatting COVID-19?

[Dr. Guillaume Poliquin]

The National Microbiology Lab has sprung into action since the early days of the pandemic and delivered the first functional diagnostic test within five days of the sequence being published by Chinese collaborators. It has continued to work tirelessly to advance the science.

Some of our work has contributed directly to our understanding of the periods of infectivity in individuals who were infected with COVID-19, and during their recovery.

We have developed a national wastewater surveillance system that is able to provide early warnings of resurgence. We were sequencing, in May alone, 30,000 genomes to understand the threat posed by variants of concern. We continue to work on the advancement of a number of potential vaccine candidates should new technologies be needed to meet the threat posed by variants.

That's a broad overview, but we are proud of the work we've been doing.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Thank you.

Can you elaborate on any international collaborations with some of the work you just mentioned?

[Dr. Guillaume Poliquin]

Absolutely. For example, our understanding of variants of concern in particular is contingent on us being open and honest collaborators through global networks, so that as different countries have learned more about variants and isolate them, they are shared freely so that we can advance our understanding.

[The Chair, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Yip.

We'll now go on to the subsequent round, beginning with Mr. Genuis, for five minutes, please.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I was quite struck by the line of questioning at the beginning by Ms. Yip. She and other Liberal members actually voted twice to demand these documents. These were unanimous motions by the committee to provide unredacted documents that Ms. Yip and her colleagues voted for. It's interesting to see that she's now determined that it would be irresponsible to request those documents.

Minister, I have some specific questions for you.

First of all, could you confirm that the Public Health Agency reports to you and that the decision about which documents are released and how to release them is ultimately your decision?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

The Public Health Agency of Canada I suppose does report to me, although they have a president and chief public health officer, who I am very proud to say give me unfettered advice on a regular basis. I will say that President Stewart released those redacted documents to the NSICOP—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Minister, I really do have limited time.

Can you just clarify—

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

—and I sent the letter to the committee to—