Canada-China Relations committee  The ability to safely handle a pathogen, in its appropriate risk group category, is one of the essential pieces that we must satisfy ourselves on prior to transfer.

Canada-China Relations committee  To be clear, there's no global accreditation system for high-containment laboratories. Within the requirements that are applied to us as an institution, we did our due diligence.

Canada-China Relations committee  The transfer of a high-containment pathogen has a series of risks, including during the transportation event, which—

Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am aware that a number of reports have surfaced in a number of different media about the potential links with SARS-CoV-2 and different theories of origin. I would like to advise all Canadians to find trustworthy sources of information when it comes to the

Canada-China Relations committee  The National Microbiology Laboratory collaborates closely with a number of laboratories across a number of containment levels, including high containment or level 4 containment. These are extremely fruitful collaborations. The development of a number of vaccine candidates and th

Canada-China Relations committee  A material transfer agreement is essentially an agreement that is put in place to help articulate the exchange of a material between two institutions. They are concerned primarily with protecting intellectual property rights, though they can also include additional clauses regard

Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. We must be compliant with three essential pieces of legislation or standards—the Human Pathogens and Toxins Act, biosecurity standards, as well as the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act—in our dealings with foreign laboratories. It's important to note t

Canada-China Relations committee  Affiliations are a complex system. Affiliations can be listed at the time of a publication in terms of where the initial research was done, as well as where the affiliation of the individual is at the time of publication.

Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and member, for the question. I would like to be categorical that coronaviruses are not at all related to the Ebola virus; nor are they related to henipaviruses. They are not in any way related, and one cannot be used to generate the other. That is a biolog

Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. There's a number of.... Collaboration, as we mentioned, is an essential part of it. That includes the sharing of best practice, and is essentially a communicative practice in many ways, particularly when we think about the high containment laboratories. We

Canada-China Relations committee  Security is a multifaceted aspect of our work and we take it seriously across the spectrum of questions. That starts with physical security, which is the securing of buildings and assets, including biological security, our ability to care for and be responsible with the pathogens

Canada-China Relations committee  Mr. Chair and honourable member, thank you for the question. Research collaboration occurs on a number of different levels. It could be at the level of individual researchers collaborating on a particular project or a particular question, and there are broader overarching collab

Canada-China Relations committee  Some of the protocols that are in place are sensitive by their nature, and therefore, I'm not at liberty to necessarily disclose them in detail. What I can say is that we look at security through a number of lenses. That includes physical security, it includes human security, it

Canada-China Relations committee  Yes. Thank you, Minister. Thank you, Mr. Chair. There's a lot to be proud of, but in the early days of the COVID-19 response, testing supply reagents were scarce and difficult to come by. Scientists at the laboratory attacked the problem in a number of different ways, including

Canada-China Relations committee  To be clear, as we are asked to potentially collaborate on research endeavours by participants from across the globe, we approach potential collaboration requests, or vice versa when we potentially initiate them from the lab, with a number of important questions to ensure that th