SECURITY AT VIROLOGY LAB

 Two leading scientists are standing by a pair of researchers fired from Canada's only Level-4 virology lab, instead pointing the finger at issues inside the Winnipeg-based facility itself. 

Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her biologist husband, Keding Cheng, were stripped of their security clearances and escorted from the National Microbiology Lab (NML) in July 2019. 

They were then fired in January, though the Public Health Agency of Canada has refused to say why. A RCMP investigation is also ongoing; no charges have been laid.

FIXING THE UNSUSTAINABLE ATLANTIC BUBBLE

A month ago, the Chronicle Herald published an article in which I argued that the Atlantic Canada economy is unsustainable and that the region has become a major burden on Canada. The starkest evidence of that is that other Canadians are obliged to contribute $6,400 to support each Atlantic Canadian each year.

The usual tired arguments come out every time commentators point out the risks of this. For example, some observe that the region educates so many people that it partly offsets the region’s financial deficit even though they never talk about the brain drain the other way – the number of educated people from the rest of Canada that live in the Atlantic region.

Commentators in the Atlantic region always ignore the changing political forces and economic circumstances in Alberta and Ontario that make it more difficult for taxpayers in those provinces to continue to support Atlantic Canadians.

CHINA KEEPS FILES ON THE WEST

The database records on Canada were curious. There were 16,000 entries, some collated from public news articles and archived Facebook posts. Much of it seems to have been taken from the business information website Crunchbase. Seventy per cent of the people captured are men. The database seems to have a disproportionate focus on the mayors of towns in Western Canada, plus academics and bureaucrats who focus on international relations.

More concerning was the shorter list of 3,767 Canadians assigned coded numbers. People given a number one were those with direct influence, such as mayors. Dozens of current and former MPs were also given that number, including Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole. Senior bureaucrats at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Treasury Board, the Transportation Safety Board, Export Development Canada and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner were also numbered with ones. Current and former justices of the Supreme Court of Canada were also on the list.

BILL C-10 SURE TO BE REVIVED

   Rex Murphy:  Would-be Lord Overseer of the Internet, journalism consultant and (in his spare time) Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault experienced a petty setback recently.

Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative MP who was one of the most vivid in opposition to C-10, executed a little online jubilato of his own over the news.

But be aware, Sir. The Liberals may have been frustrated in their first go at communications control, but should there be an election (which seems very likely), and should they win (which seems ever-so-sadly likely as well), they will exhume the monstrosity from the order paper cemetery, attach the electrodes, call for lightning, haul down the electric lever, and the sad, horrifying creature will walk again.

CHINA'S TIGHTENING GRIP ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

 A Chinese tech giant filed more patents in Canada last year than any other company, evidence of what some observers say is a failure by Canada to secure the critical intellectual property rights needed to build next-generation technologies.

Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications, a Chinese consumer electronics and smartphone maker, filed 281 individual patents in Canada’s intellectual property office in 2019-20. U.S. semiconductor company Qualcomm was second on the Top 10 list, followed by several other American firms and two Chinese multinationals, Huawei Technologies (sixth) and Alibaba Group (10th). State-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco was seventh.

All companies on the Top 10 list were foreign (nine of them American or Chinese) as firms continue to funnel huge resources into ensuring that they have priority ownership on the technologies of the future, including anything from smartphone software to chemical ingredients for car batteries.

TRUDEAU & BUTTS EXCUSING CHURCH BURNING

 Lilley:  What is wrong with Justin Trudeau and his gang that they keep calling the burning of churches “understandable?” First it was Trudeau last week, now it’s his former right-hand man and confidant, Gerald Butts.

When Terry Glavin, a longtime columnist for Postmedia papers the National Post and Ottawa Citizen, took a swipe at people defending Harsha Walia, Butts jumped in. Walia is the head of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association who in response to news of two more churches burning down in B.C. last week tweeted, “Burn it all down.”

That’s when Butts stepped in to mock Glavin and Postmedia.

I’m not raising all of this to defend Glavin because he writes for Postmedia, which is also the owner of this paper and my employer. What Glavin did was point out that Butts was defending people who called for all churches to be burned down.

PROVINCES RIGHT TO LIFT MASK MANDATES

 It was a happy Canada Day for residents of Alberta and British Columbia, as those two provinces ended their province-wide mask mandates.

Sadly, not everyone is evolving their response. Ontario seems stuck in a rut — stubbornly reluctant to acknowledge that progress has been made.

It’s like pulling teeth to get Ontario Premier Doug Ford to make even the smallest of moves when it comes to smart re-openings. He needs to pick up the pace.

The same goes for the federal scene. The way Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Dr. Theresa Tam speak, you’d think vaccines don’t work and the situation is worse than ever. Don’t let their negativity bring you down.