Canada-China Relations committee  Yes.

Canada-China Relations committee  I'm not able to comment on that. I can comment on the processes at the Public Health Agency, where we require conflict of interest and affiliation declarations from all of our scientists and indeed from all of our personnel. I can say that participation in the talent programs of foreign countries, if declared, would be a significant conflict of interest and would not be accepted.

Canada-China Relations committee  I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I'm unable to comment on labs across the country. I can comment only on the declared affiliations and conflicts of interest of the staff at the Public Health Agency, as I previously mentioned.

Canada-China Relations committee  It's for exactly this reason that the investigation processes we conducted at the time were so thorough and relied on evidence rather than allegations. The processes that we have in place now to review research collaborations and affiliations are broad-based and not specific to particular individuals.

Canada-China Relations committee  In the process that we undertake to provide security clearances, the Public Health Agency and the security branch of the health portfolio undertake the initial reliability checks, etc. All security clearances go through a process of verification by the RCMP and then are referred for secret security clearances to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which conducts reliability assessments.

Canada-China Relations committee  I would say security clearances are periodically reviewed. At the time the security clearances were granted, these were scientists who had long-standing work at the agency. None of the indices or events that subsequently emerged were evident. Indeed, in these documents, there is no evidence prior to this time of covert activities.

Canada-China Relations committee  Mr. Chair, what I can say is that the evidence of their involvement in the talent programs and foreign associations and some of their travel was not presented to the Public Health Agency until June 30, 2020.

Canada-China Relations committee  It's very important, given the seriousness of the allegations, that we have evidence to back up the allegations—

Canada-China Relations committee  The administrative investigation that was concluded in the spring of 2019 specifically said that an administrative investigation needed to be launched in order to determine if the allegations that had been raised in the fact-finding were indeed founded. They were still allegations at that point in time, and in July 2019, both employees were placed on leave without pay as a result of that.

Canada-China Relations committee  The information in these administrative investigations is clearly subject to the Privacy Act. It also includes highly sensitive national security information provided by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. The need to ensure that these documents are disclosed in a protected setting underpinned the redactions that were initially made.

Canada-China Relations committee  Collaboration is at the heart of scientific advancement, particularly in public health research and research into the consequences of these pathogens. We saw this, for example, in the Ebola outbreak in west Africa, in the SARS outbreak in Canada and, most recently, in COVID-19. These examples show that international collaboration is essential in order to advance quickly to keep pace with evolving and mutating viruses.

Canada-China Relations committee  I think there have been a number of structures set up to look at national security issues—the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians is an example—but also, in this case, the ad hoc committee structure that was struck and the panel of arbiters used a number of different techniques to ensure that information related to national security could be divulged to the maximum extent possible while still protecting what is highly sensitive information.

Canada-China Relations committee  I'm going to turn to my colleague Dr. Poliquin to confirm.

Canada-China Relations committee  I can say that we moved forward, Mr. Chair, as expediently as possible with the investigations. Initially, we had circumstances and then had allegations, but given their severity and impact, it was very important to have evidence. As soon as evidence was secured, we moved forward.

Canada-China Relations committee  No.