Head of National Microbiology Lab resigns in wake of scientist security scandal

The head of the National Microbiology Lab (NML) in Winnipeg says he is stepping down to continue his medical work and take a position at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, CBC News has learned.

Since 2020, Dr. Guillaume Poliquin has overseen Canada’s only Level 4 virology facility, which is equipped to deal with the most serious and deadly human and animal diseases.

Poliquin announced his resignation to staff in an internal email on Tuesday.

With so little public information it isn’t hard to imagine this was much worse than we know.

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Canada takes step toward tariffs on Chinese EVs by announcing consultation

The federal government took a step Monday toward imposing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports by announcing a 30-day consultation period to examine Beijing’s trade practices in the EV sector.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland made the announcement in Vaughan, Ont. She said that the consultations, which begin July 2, will help the government craft its response to Beijing.

I bet the initial consultation recommends additional consultation ad infinitum.

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Ontario judge finds no documentation to support Global News reporting on Han Dong allegations

An Ontario Superior Court judge has found no documented evidence to support allegations made against former Liberal MP Han Dong in a series of Global News stories last year.

The judge made the comments as he rejected an application from Corus Entertainment to throw out Dong’s lawsuit against the news agency, saying it is in the public interest to hear the case.

“The matter of Mr. Dong’s communications with the Chinese are worthy of the freedom of expression of an open court system,” Justice Paul Perell said in his judgment Wednesday.

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Will Canada join the U.S. in a tariff battle against Chinese EV imports?

China crappy electric cars, EV

The Canadian government appears set to push back against the explosive growth in Chinese electric vehicle imports by joining its allies in a tariff battle that risks triggering retaliation from Beijing.

On Thursday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford called on the federal government to “immediately match or exceed U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports, including at least a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles.”

“Taking every advantage of low labour standards and dirty energy, China is flooding the market with artificially cheap electric vehicles. Unless we act fast, we risk Ontario and Canadian jobs,” the premier said in a media statement.

I’m sure Canada’s China class will steer Justin in Beijing’s approved direction.

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Trudeau’s security adviser plays down concealing documents from foreign interference inquiry

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national security adviser is playing down concerns over the government concealing cabinet documents from the commissioner looking into foreign interference, saying the government has chosen to provide the cabinet confidences it considers “most relevant” to the inquiry.

“So, we shared with the commission, in a very transparent way, things that were relevant, to the point, with them,” she said.

Conservative MP Eric Duncan compared the situation to “a courtroom trial where the accused that’s on the stand gets to choose what evidence the judge gets to see.”

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Chinese Canadian group links two Senators to actions against Canada’s interests

A Chinese Canadian human rights group taking part in Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission (FIC) has linked two Canadian senators to NSICOP’s explosive June 2024 intelligence review.

The submission to Ottawa’s FIC from Chinese Canadian Concern Group points at Senator Yuen Pau Woo, also an intervener with the Commission, and Senator Victor Oh.

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Terry Glavin: A user’s guide to Trudeau’s illicit affair with China’s Communists

In the ordinary course of heated political controversies, Canadians can sort out the issue that’s launching their politicians at one another’s throats. In the “foreign interference” upheaval that has in turns paralyzed, confounded and outraged Canada’s political class in recent days, we’re not even allowed to know what the federal party leaders are arguing about, exactly.

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As Dictated To The Star By Katie Telford On Behalf Of Xi Jinping …

In Justin Trudeau’s paranoid Ottawa, insiders say treason allegations are being carelessly tossed around

By Justin Ling Contributor

Eighty years ago, cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko walked out of the Soviet embassy in Ottawa with a briefcase full of documents and a plan to defect. When he finally got an audience with the RCMP, he revealed the most extensive espionage and influence campaign Canada had ever seen.

Gouzenko’s defection spurred a series of investigations, a public inquiry, and a media frenzy. Revelations of how Moscow sought to steal secrets and infiltrate Ottawa gripped the nation and woke Ottawa up to new realities of the Cold War.

The gall.

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Suck-Up Singh says Han Dong shouldn’t be allowed back into Liberal caucus

After reading an unredacted report from one of Canada’s intelligence oversight bodies, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he now thinks that Independent MP Han Dong shouldn’t be allowed back into the Liberal caucus.

Last week, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), a cross-party committee of MPs and senators with top security clearances, released a heavily blacked-out document alleging, based on intelligence, that some parliamentarians have been “semi-witting or witting” participants in the efforts of foreign states to interfere in Canadian politics.

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TAYLOR: The truth at last… CSIS reveals story of Chinese spies who got away with it

Justin Trudeau Xiangguo Qiu Keding Cheng – Everybody say Xi

Spy novelist John Le Carré established his reputation with 1963’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Set at the height of the Cold War, it describes washed-up British spy Alec Leamas’ attempt to infiltrate East German intelligence as a double agent. It’s a grim tale of hidden identities, uncertain alliances and spymasters prepared to sacrifice their own men in pursuit of bigger game. According to Le Carré — who worked for Britain’s MI6 in Germany while writing the book — the modern world of espionage is unpleasant, unglamourous and devoid of loyalty. Unhappy endings are inevitable.

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Guilbeault ridiculed after true cost of carbon tax revealed

After years of denying the negative impact of the carbon tax on the economy, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has released data confirming the tax is a net cost for the economy, contradicting previous claims of revenue neutrality and job creation.

Blacklock’s Reporter says the figures show the carbon tax will cut economic production by $20 billion to $30 billion annually, equivalent to $1,200 per family in extra annual costs, as noted by Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Guilbeault attempted to downplay the findings.

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Terry Glavin: Trudeau’s Chinese collaboration has been in broad daylight all along

It’s been quite the melodrama.

For two weeks, the inferred conclusions of “treason” on Parliament Hill derived from an 84-page-report that none of us is allowed to read have only heaped fuel on a garbage fire that began with the leaked revelations of intelligence agency whistleblowers going back to November 2022.

The stinking reek of it all should not be expected to subside any time soon. All the parties in the House now seem content with having the matter kicked over to Justice Marie-Josée Hogue’s Foreign Interference Commission. In the short term, if any legislative good comes of the international spectacle Canada’s political class has been making of itself, it will be in the outcome of Bill C-70, the Countering Foreign Interference Act, which completed third reading in the House of Commons on Thursday.

Trudeau is a witting accomplice.

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Ignoring Chinese spying has made Canada the weak link among Western allies

US v Canada

… This cross-border discrepancy is partly explained by serious flaws in Canada’s legal system. As an intelligence-gathering service, CSIS is best placed to identify crimes of espionage. But it has no actual law enforcement powers. It can share its findings with the RCMP, but this relationship is complicated by the fact CSIS intel is not admissible in court since the agency refuses to disclose its sources and methods.

“If defence lawyers ever get a whiff of the fact the RCMP has relied on CSIS information, they will demand to test that information in court,” warns Phil Gurski, a former strategic analyst at CSIS. For this reason, cases built on CSIS evidence are often not prosecuted. It is possible Qiu and Cheng were allowed to leave the country because the mountain of proof incriminating them was inadmissible in court.

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Poilievre is the sole party leader foregoing access to classified report on foreign interference

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is the only federal party leader foregoing access to a classified national security and intelligence watchdog’s report that says the country’s intelligence services believe some parliamentarians are “semi-witting or witting” participants in foreign-interference efforts.

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