The Liberals have spent $123,000 trying to keep information on Chinese scientists at Canada’s top secret bio lab a secret..The legal expenses included payments to unnamed third party lawyers..“In this case only solicitor-client privilege is waived and only to the extent of revealing the total legal costs,” cabinet wrote in an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons..Expenses totaled $122,600..Cabinet last June 23 went to Federal Court to block disclosure of documents on Chinese researchers at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. Scientists, including staff affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army, were fired Jan. 20, 2021 after RCMP raided the lab..Internal e-mails disclosed to date showed Chinese researchers were in contact with the Wuhan Institute of Virology prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan. Many people believe the COVID-19 virus escaped from the lab..Laboratory managers and the federal cabinet have refused four separate orders for additional records sought by MPs..Attorney General David Lametti sued to conceal the documents under the Evidence Act in the name of national security..“It is not going to be a decision that is partisan in any way,” Lametti told reporters at the time, adding: “I will approach this as attorney general in a non-partisan manner. I will never play politics with national security.”.The Federal Court challenge marked the first time any cabinet sued Parliament to conceal records. Members of the Commons health committee expressed outrage..“There are a few members of this committee who are old enough to remember Watergate,” said New Democrat MP Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway)..“I certainly do. It’s a little harder to recognize when it’s close to home.”.“Regardless of political stripe, Parliament is supreme and we have a right to this information,” said Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner (Calgary Nose Hill)..“When the House or the committee orders this information, it is not up to the government to try and sue the Speaker of the House of Commons.”.The lawsuit was dropped with the general election last September 20. However cabinet to date has not permitted MPs to review the records..“Protecting national security is a fundamental principle we must all respect whether it involves hundreds of pages or thousands of pages,” Government House Leader Mark Holland wrote in a January 18 letter to Opposition MPs..“It is this principle that should matter to us all.”
