“That’s why I want to inform the government today that members of the Conservative Party of the National Intelligence and Security Council will immediately withdraw their participation.”

In recent weeks, O’Toole and the Conservative Party have raised many questions about the mysterious dismissal of two employees of the Winnipeg National Microbiology Laboratory and the relationship between the laboratory and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The Conservative Party stated that laboratory records must be provided to them as part of a global effort to determine the origin of the new coronavirus, which was first discovered in Wuhan.

These documents are currently limited to the National Security and Intelligence Committee (NSICOP) of Congressmen, established by the Trudeau government in 2018, to review Canada’s national security and intelligence activities.

Conservatives say that documents can reveal the theory of “laboratory leaks”

Although the current scientific consensus is that the pandemic may have started due to human contact with infected animals, there is a renewed push to investigate the “laboratory leak” theory, which assumes that the virus originated in a research laboratory in Wuhan.

This possibility was largely rejected as a fringe theory driven by anti-Chinese xenophobia, but it has gained credibility in recent weeks.

In May, US President Joe Biden Order an investigation into the origin of COVID-19 -Including the possibility that this path may lead to a Chinese laboratory. Biden said that Chinese officials did not fully cooperate with international investigators trying to study the virus.

The two scientists fired by the Winnipeg laboratory, Qiu Xiangguo and her biologist husband Kending Cheng were escorted out of the site in 2019 and were formally fired in January.

Qiu was responsible for transporting Ebola virus and Henipa virus to Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Conservative MP Michael Chong said in a statement: “It’s time for the Liberal Party to publish these documents and be transparent to Canadians.” “Canadians should know what happened in the Winnipeg laboratory and violations of national security. the truth.”

“No link to COVID-19”

At a meeting of the Special Committee on Canada-China Relations on Monday, Health Minister Patty Hajdu asked a series of questions about the Winnipeg Laboratory.

During the three-hour meeting, she largely avoided the Conservative Party and New Democrats’ questions, although Hajdu did say that the virus’ transfer from Winnipeg to Wuhan had nothing to do with the pandemic.

Hajdu said: “There is no connection between the transfer of the virus cited in the order and the subsequent departure of these employees.”

“There is no link to COVID-19.”

The Liberal government argued that documents related to the Winnipeg laboratory should be processed by NSICOP because a wider public release could endanger Canada’s national security.

The members of NSICOP include parliamentarians and senators from multiple political parties.

Leona Alleslev and Rob Morrison are the only Conservative MPs on the 11-member committee.