Connect with us
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=12]

espionage

Breaking: CSIS warned Health Canada of “insider threat” from Wuhan Institute-tied scientist Dr. Qiu Seven Months Before Lethal Ebola Shipped to China

Published

9 minute read

Sam Cooper 

@samthebureau

In an explosive admission, Parliament’s Canada-China Committee has confirmed that Canada’s spy agency, CSIS, issued a direct and unheeded warning to senior health officials in August 2018, raising concerns about “insider threat activities” linked to Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng.

This alert, delivered seven months before the couple’s network—with connections to the highest levels of Chinese biological weapons research—coordinated the shipment of live Ebola and Henipah virus samples from Canada’s high-security National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), highlighted risks posed by their continued access to sensitive materials.

“CSIS held a briefing for personnel responsible for security at [Public Health Canada],” in August 2018 that “focused on foreign interference and included possible indicators of insider threat activities, as well as other security risks,” according to CSIS’s submission to the Committee. In CSIS’s presentation, “student programs were identified as being one of these possible threat vectors,” prompting “[Public Health Canada] to flag two scientists to CSIS, Dr. Cheng and Dr. Qiu,” the Committee report, released Tuesday, states.

Despite these explicit warnings, no immediate restrictions were placed on Qiu, Cheng, or their Chinese students’ access to Canada’s sensitive research materials. In December 2018, Public Health Canada authorized a fact-finding investigation into the concerns, but the delayed response effectively allowed them to continue their operations, further endangering Canada’s security.

Please support this important journalism.

Consider becoming a free or paid subscriber of The Bureau.

The Committee report also finds—like the ongoing Hogue Commission—that Justin Trudeau’s government, including senior bureaucrats and ministers, showed a reluctance to act on or even acknowledge urgent alerts from CSIS, exposing a stark divide between CSIS’s view of Chinese threats and Trudeau’s.

Dr. Qiu’s associations with China’s military and scientific programs had deep roots. She began her work at the Winnipeg NML in 2003, followed by her husband’s employment there in 2006.

As early as 2013, Keding Cheng filled out an application for the PRC’s “Science and Technology Innovation Talent Program of Henan Province,” requiring applicants to “passionately love the socialist motherland [PRC]” and maintain Chinese citizenship.

By 2016, Dr. Qiu was nominated for an award by a senior military official from the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences, recognizing her collaborations with Major-General Chen Wei, a leading figure in China’s biological weapons research. CSIS investigations revealed that Dr. Qiu and Major-General Chen collaborated on multiple research projects dating back to 2012.

Dr. Qiu’s use of Canada’s facilities to benefit China was well recognized in Beijing. An award nomination for Dr. Qiu noted that she “used Canada’s Level 4 Biosecurity Laboratory as a base to assist China to improve its capability to fight highly pathogenic pathogens … and achieved brilliant results.”

In October 2016, Dr. Qiu co-authored a paper with Major-General Chen and other scientists affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences, further deepening her connection to Chinese military research. By this time, Qiu had also been recruited into China’s Thousand Talents Program—a PRC initiative aimed at harnessing international scientific expertise—and these affiliations, conspicuously absent from her Canadian curriculum vitae, made her a person of interest to CSIS, especially as her work increasingly intersected with China’s biosecurity research.

Concerns over Qiu and Cheng’s activities continued to mount at the NML. In October 2018, Cheng, accompanied by a restricted visitor, attempted to exit the lab with two Styrofoam containers, claiming they were empty. By January 2019, Cheng breached security again by using another employee’s passcode to enter the NML.

On March 23, 2019, Public Health Canada received its fact-finding report, which advised administrative investigations into Qiu and Cheng. Yet, only days later, on March 31, live samples of Ebola and Henipah viruses were shipped from the NML to the WIV, highlighting critical lapses in Canada’s security protocols.

In response to these revelations, the Committee’s report outlines recommendations to safeguard Canada’s scientific resources from similar threats in the future. Chief among these is a call for the Government of Canada to immediately terminate all research collaboration with PRC-affiliated entities in sensitive fields, such as artificial intelligence, aerospace, and advanced digital infrastructure.

A key recommendation is to designate the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Thousand Talents Program as Named Research Organizations under Public Safety Canada, subjecting them to enhanced scrutiny and restricted partnerships due to their potential security risks. Furthermore, the Committee suggests that Canada explore constitutionally compliant legal measures to prevent individuals under national security investigation from leaving the country. Despite RCMP investigations, the couple was able to leave Canada.

As investigations mounted, irregularities in the WIV shipment were noticed, and it was only in January 2021 that Public Health Canada terminated the couple’s employment. Nathalie Drouin, Deputy Clerk of the Privy Council, acknowledged with evident understatement, “it is a timeline that needs to be looked at.” However, Richard Fadden, the director of CSIS from 2009 to 2013, testified that the timeline “was too long” and the viral shipment to WIV “should not have happened.”

In his opinion, the incident at the Winnipeg NML revealed a deep cultural issue long present in Canada’s federal administration. “I don’t think the culture in this particular lab and in large parts of the public service had caught up with the change in facts as we understand China,” Fadden said. His comments emphasize a notable gap between CSIS’s understanding of the Chinese threat and that of Trudeau’s administration.

“This gap in the understanding of risk between national security and science sectors at the federal level, particularly with regard to the threat to Canadian interests posed by actions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was illustrated in testimony before the Special Committee,” the report says.

On one hand, Minister of Health Mark Holland noted that “countries such as China are implicating themselves in our domestic processes in a way that would have been unimaginable just five years ago” and are “potentially willing, in this instance, to use pathogens that threaten humanity in order to advance their geopolitical agenda.” But Fadden pointed out that “CSIS was already aware of concerns about the PRC’s actions,” noting that since Xi Jinping’s rise to power in 2013, the institutionalization of espionage and interference techniques by the CCP has intensified.

Adding to these concerns is the Trudeau government’s controversial denial of access to related records, noted by the report, raising questions of transparency and whether there may have been a cover-up of key details surrounding the case.

The Bureau is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Todayville is a digital media and technology company. We profile unique stories and events in our community. Register and promote your community event for free.

Follow Author

espionage

Non-citizens could choose Canada’s next prime minister thanks to Liberal Party rules

Published on

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Liberals have refused to change their membership rule which allow non-citizens to vote in leadership races despite concerns that this could lead to foreign interference in selecting a prime minister to replace Trudeau

The Liberal Party has refused to change their membership rules for the upcoming leadership race, meaning Canada’s next prime minister could effectively be chosen by non-Canadians.  

On January 7 the Liberals confirmed that their membership rules allowing non-citizens to vote in leadership races will remain intact despite concerns that this could lead to foreign interference in selecting a prime minister to replace Justin Trudeau, who has announced he is stepping down. 

According to information shared with CBC News, the Liberal Party “doesn’t intend to change or reinterpret rules in its 2016 constitution that Elections Canada has suggested could make the vote be at least as vulnerable to such efforts as previous leadership races.”  

Following Trudeau’s resignation, the Liberal Party is preparing for a leadership race. In addition to being the new Liberal leader, the winning candidate will automatically serve as prime minister at least until an election is held, which could be as late as October.

Currently, the Liberal Party rules do not require proof of Canadian citizenship to join the party, but only that the person “ordinarily live[s] in Canada or, for Canadians living abroad, be qualified as an elector who may vote in accordance with part 11 of the Canada Elections Act.”  

Additionally, while voters must by 18 years-old to participate in the Federal Election, voters as young as 14-years-old can participate in the Liberal’s leadership race provided they “support the purposes of the Party.” 

Many have pointed out that the loose rules will allow any number of non-citizens, from China, India, Russia or any part of the world, to effectively help select the interim prime minister.   

According to Statistics Canada, there are now more than three million non-permanent residents living in Canada who are eligible to vote for the new Liberal leader and consequently, the prime minister.  

Even some Liberal MPs have called for more strict rules to safeguard the upcoming leadership race, noting the potential dangers of their open policy.   

In response to foreign interference claims, the Foreign Interference Commission was convened in late 2023 to “examine and assess the interference by China, Russia, and other foreign states or non-state actors, including any potential impacts, to confirm the integrity of, and any impacts on, the 43rd and 44th general elections (2019 and 2021 elections) at the national and electoral district levels.”   

The commission is headed by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, who had earlier said she and her lawyers will remain “impartial” and will not be influenced by politics. In January 2024, Hogue said that she would “uncover the truth whatever it may be.”   

As reported by LifeSiteNews, documents from a federal inquiry looking at meddling in Canada’s past two elections by foreign state actors show that agents of the CCP allegedly worked at Elections Canada polling centers during the 2021 campaign.   

To date, Trudeau has been coy and has never explicitly stated whether he was ever told by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) that CCP agents’ actions were in breach of the nation’s Elections Act.   

A few months ago, the head of Canada’s intelligence agency testified under oath that he gave Trudeau multiple warnings that agents of the CCP were going after Conservative MPs, yet the prime minister has denied receiving these warnings.   

Continue Reading

espionage

Retired Army Intelligence Officer says Vegas Cybertruck bomber may be whistleblower on east coast drone invasion

Published on

A guest Friday’s “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast says Las Vegas Cybertruck bomber Matthew Livelsberger emailed him with an incredible claim.

Retired Army Intelligence Officer Sam Shoemate said Livelsberger claimed he was being followed by Homeland Security because they know he’s trying to reveal a high-level coverup of “advanced drone technology” launched by China.

During the podcast, The Shawn Ryan Show discovered they’d also received an email from Livelsberger. On the X platform, Ryan released the email as revealed by Shoemate.

The suspected Cybertruck bomber said he’s releasing this information to reveal the existence of “gravitic propulsion systems” which civilians have recently recognized as “drones” flying over the US east coast.

Livelsberger says only the US and China have this technology and China is demonstrating that they could use it. He calls these systems the “most dangerous threat to national security that has ever existed” and says “China is poised to attack anywhere in the east coast”.

 

The entire email reads:

“In case I do not make it to my decision point or on to the Mexico border I am sending this now. Please do not release this until 1JAN and keep my identity private until then.

“First off I am not under duress or hostile influence or control. My first car was a 2006 Black Ford Mustang V6 for verification.

“What we have been seeing with ‘drones’ is the operational use of gravitic propulsion systems powered aircraft by most recently China in the east coast, but throughout history, the US. Only we and China have this capability. Our OPEN location for this activity in the box is below.

“China has been launching them from the Atlantic from submarines for years, but this activity recently has picked up. As of now, it is just a show of force and they are using it similar to how they used the balloon for sigint and isr, which are also part of the integrated coms system. There are dozens of those balloons in the air at any given time.

“The so what is because of the speed and stealth of these unmanned AC, they are the most dangerous threat to national security that has ever existed. They basically have an unlimited payload capacity and can park it over the WH if they wanted. It’s checkmate.

“USG needs to give the history of this, how we are employing it and weaponizing it, how China is employing them and what the way forward is. China is poised to attack anywhere in the east coast.

“I’ve been followed for over a week now from likely homeland or FBI, and they are looking to move on me and are unlikely going to let me cross into Mexico, but won’t because they know I am armed and I have a massive VBIED. I’ve been trying to maintain a very visible profile and have kept my phone and they are definitely digitally tracking me.”  (VBIED – vehicle-borne explosive device)

Livelsberger’s email concludes by alleging the coverup of “war crimes” in Afghanistan’s Nimruz Province that “killed hundreds of civilians in a single day.”

He begs the recipients of his email to verify his claims so the public receives this information without any influence from government agencies.   “You need to elevate this to the media so we avoid a world war because this is a mutually assured destruction situation.”

In the Shawn Ryan podcast interview, Sam Shoemate suggested Livelsberger might actually still be alive.

Considering all this potentially explosive information, podcaster Shawn Ryan said he’s “disappearing” for a while.

The full interview, which as of Saturday afternoon has been viewed nearly 12 million times on X and nearly 4 million times on YouTube, can be seen here:

Continue Reading

Trending

X