Three former judges will have the final say over the release of “sensitive” documents related to the firing of two scientists from Canada’s most secure laboratory.

The Liberal government announced on Wednesday that former Supreme Court Justices Ian Binnie and Marshall Rothstein, and former Federal Circuit Court Justice Eleanor Dawson, will work as “expert arbiters” with the Select Committee of Parliamentarians that will examine the documents .

Opposition parties believe the documents in question will shed light on why scientists Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng were escorted out of the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg in July 2019 and then released for a year and a half later, in January 2021.

The opposition also wants to see documents related to Professor Qiu’s transmission of the deadly Ebola and Henipah viruses to the Chinese Institute of Virology in Wuhan in March 2019.

The select committee of parliamentarians consists of Liberal MP Iqra Khalid, Bloc Québécois René Villemure, Conservative John Williamson and new Democrat Heather McPherson. The four parties each nominated a “replacement” MP for the special committee, if necessary.

The government announced in a press release on Wednesday that these MPs will have unrestricted access to redacted and non-redacted documents “in a secure setting”. Members of the special committee will also attend briefings from officials on why certain information is protected and not disclosed, the government said.

If committee members think redacted information should be released, the three former judges will act as “expert arbiters” in deciding how it could be released more widely “without compromising national security, national defense or international relations or other public matters.” to endanger”. or private interest,” the government explains.

Wait more than a year

The announcement of the participants in the process comes more than a year after the Liberals announced they would set up such a special committee to review “sensitive” documents. The Conservatives initially rejected the idea, preferring to refer the files to a standing committee of the House of Commons.

Under a House of Commons order passed by opposition parties in 2021 over government objections, the documents would have been reviewed by the House Clerk for possible national security concerns, but committee members reserved the right to review any material they chose publish.

House Speaker Mark Holland then urged Conservatives to reconsider the approach proposed by Liberals, citing several experts who argued national security would be at risk if the opposition’s demands were accepted.

Mr Holland acknowledged on Wednesday that setting up the select committee and recruiting former judges had taken time. “The first problem is that when we started we only had one partner, the New Democratic Party, and we were willing to go along with it. Then the bloc indicated that they wanted to participate, and then the Conservatives,” he explained. “So it took time to add and select these members. »

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