Canada-China Relations committee  Indeed, the clearance process itself requires individuals to declare many details of their past affiliations, lives and work. We do verify, through our security office and our chief security officer, those declarations. For all public servants who have clearances, there are checks done through the RCMP—criminal—and also through the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to verify, as well as through open and other sources of public information.

Canada-China Relations committee  In my opening statement, I made it very clear that these were very serious security incidents. They were a violation of the duty of loyalty that all of our scientists strive to uphold every day. We take them very seriously indeed. The protections that are in place to protect national security information and privacy information meant that they could not be fully disclosed in the public domain without appropriate protections, which have been provided by the ad hoc committee and the panel of arbiters.

Canada-China Relations committee  I think obviously there are different legislative frameworks in different countries, but I think all countries would have in common a security screening and clearance process similar to the one that we have, writ large. Countries also have specific legislation, but it differs for each country, similar to our Human Pathogens and Toxins Act.

Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. We've implemented a whole series of security enhancements based on the lessons learned from this process. The different areas of security policy and procedure that I outlined earlier range from cybersecurity to physical security to security clearances and above all to employee awareness, education and compliance.

Canada-China Relations committee  I would say that the two employees who actually were in violation of the policies have been terminated. Those were the disciplinary actions that were taken. Those were the only violations of policies and protocols that were at play in these administrative investigations. They have been accordingly fired.

Canada-China Relations committee  I'll turn to Dr. Poliquin on that.

Canada-China Relations committee  There was no MOU to establish a level 4 lab. In 2007, there was a science and technical co-operation agreement with China to boost collaborative research and development in the life sciences, including for vaccines. That's the only co-operation agreement of which I'm aware.

Canada-China Relations committee  I can't comment on what undeclared collaborations might be there. I can say that at the agency we have a policy requiring affiliations and conflict of interest to be declared. No such affiliations have been declared, and if they were declared, they would not be accepted.

Canada-China Relations committee  I'd say that there are two levels of screening for all personnel who require clearances. There is, of course, the security screening process, which we've already discussed here, including reliability status, including criminal and Canadian Security Intelligence Service checks.

Canada-China Relations committee  In this case, we are talking about scientists who, despite clearances and work that was widely recognized as leading science globally, hid their activities—

Canada-China Relations committee  I can say that it was the Public Health Agency that first raised issues about potential activity that was under way that launched the investigation. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has already stated that we acted as expeditiously as we could, given the information that was available.

Canada-China Relations committee  In this case, the leadership of the agency and the lab took steps as quickly as they could to respond to the information. They detected and raised the allegations, and measures were put in place accordingly.

Canada-China Relations committee  Mr. Chair, I would say that in retrospect, the policies that were put in place on students, for example, afforded too much latitude to scientists who obviously had a clandestine agenda of which we were not aware. As a result, those policies have been changed. However, the policies were respected in those cases.

Canada-China Relations committee  The composition of the list is done by the public safety and security services under the auspices of ISED. The Public Health Agency isn't privy to the details of why certain institutions have been placed on that list, but we are in full compliance.

Canada-China Relations committee  CSIS was involved from the outset. Indeed, it was an awareness session with CSIS that led the security branch to begin its investigation, working with the lab to see if we had vulnerabilities of the nature CSIS described. Obviously, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has tools and methods available to it under its act that afford it greater insight into covert and clandestine activities.