Fired Winnipeg Lab Scientists Lied About Relationship With China, Failed to Protect Sensitive Assets: Documents

Winnipeg Lab: Government Failing on National Security, Putting Safety at Risk

February 29, 2024 TruthUSA

Commentary

There is an old saying “it is always darkest before the dawn.” The meaning behind this axiom is that things may look dire but they will soon turn for the better.

When it comes to the federal government and national security, however, I fear only more darkness for the foreseeable future.

Sticking with the “light” theme, it is dawning on more and more Canadians just how bad things are when national security is concerned. Not only do we have a prime minister and entourage that ignore intelligence on a variety of issues (Beijing’s interference/influence/harassment of dissidents on our soil, Hamas supporters among the protests over Israel’s war in Gaza, Russian disinformation campaigns, etc.), but we also see a government that insists our protectors (CSIS, CSE, and the RCMP among others) are rife with “systemic racism.” This is having a deeply negative effect on those agencies and their employees according to my sources and leading to significant departures of seasoned professionals.

Let’s unpack this a bit. A country that has already tried to compromise our elections (in 2019 and 2021 and perhaps even earlier), browbeaten Canadian Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, and Falun Gong adherents to stay silent on abuses or face retribution on their families, run illegal “police stations” on our soil, and stolen other technology, is now seen to be using/pilfering our data on highly infectious diseases. This, in a land where COVID-19 began!

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It is important not to overreact to this news. We do not know why the Chinese did this or for what end. Fears that the knowledge could be weaponized or sold to terrorist groups are as of yet unfounded. Yet, for a regime that bullies its neighbors, is close to Moscow and Pyongyang, and poses a significant threat to global security, any leak is bad. It will probably prove impossible to find out just how bad this all is since our security agencies are underfunded and under-resourced.

And how has the government responded to this? Alas, as it always does: deny, obfuscate, blame someone else, and keep us in the dark. CSIS warned about this for years and, like intelligence on election meddling, the agency’s findings were ignored. A member of the Five Eyes community, NATO, and the West should not act in this way.

This would all be highly embarrassing (which it is) at a minimum but it is more important than just a black eye on the lab and the government’s running of it. We are already seeing our reputation sullied among our allies (retired General Rick Hillier says we are on the road to “irrelevance”) and questions asked about our seriousness on national defense and security matters. Now we cannot be trusted to ensure that highly sensitive research into biological materials is done properly, that those with access have been properly vetted, and that we minimize the chances of it falling into the wrong hands.

It is no longer–wait it never was–enough for the Health Minister to lament, “there was a lax adherence to the security protocols in place,” and claim, “there was an inadequate understanding of the threat of foreign interference.” How can there have been an “inadequate understanding” when CSIS has been passing this message on for decades? Where is the acceptance of responsibility for incompetence? When will intelligence matter in government circles?

Perhaps it is time for the government to take intelligence and national security seriously.

Perhaps it is time for a change.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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