The National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg on Feb. 28.Shannon VanRaes /The Globe and Mail
The head of Canada’s top infectious-disease laboratory in Winnipeg is resigning to take on a new role at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, while the RCMP continues to investigate the activities of two scientists fired from his facility for covertly working with China’s military.
Philippe Guillaume Poliquin will step down from the National Microbiology Laboratory on Aug. 2 to become the assistant registrar for the complaints and investigations department at Manitoba’s medical oversight body on Aug. 6, according to an internal memo sent to staff at the regulatory college, obtained by The Globe and Mail.
The college is expected to make a public announcement about the hiring next week. Dr. Poliquin’s role at the Winnipeg lab will be temporarily filled by Howard Njoo, Canada’s deputy chief public health officer, until a permanent replacement is hired, said Mark Johnson, a spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada, in an e-mailed statement on Thursday.
“A competitive process was launched this week to fill the position on a permanent basis,” Mr. Johnson wrote, attaching a hyperlink to a newly opened job listing on the federal government’s website with a salary of up to $271,700. Prospective candidates can apply for the position until Aug. 21.
Mr. Johnson said the Public Health Agency is grateful for Dr. Poliquin’s years of service. “We know that he will continue to excel in his new role,” he added.
Dr. Poliquin was not made available for an interview. He has led the National Microbiology Laboratory – Canada’s only Level 4 infectious-disease facility, capable of handling the most deadly human and animal viruses – during a period of intense turbulence.
Two infectious-disease scientists – Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng – were escorted from the high-security lab in July, 2019, and later had their clearances revoked. They have been under an RCMP national-security investigation since May, 2019, and were fired in January, 2021.
A Globe and Mail investigation in March revealed that the pair are now working in China and that Dr. Qiu is collaborating with researchers from the People’s Liberation Army. The couple are using the pseudonyms Sandra Chiu and Kaiting Cheng.
MPs on the House of Commons special committee on Canada-China relations have also been investigating how the two scientists managed to escape scrutiny while doing work for China and allowing Chinese military scientists and students access to the Winnipeg lab.
Additionally, in late May, a U.S. congressional committee investigating the origins of COVID-19 summoned the country’s Director of National Intelligence for a briefing on the firing of the two scientists in Winnipeg.
In the internal memo to staff at the college this week, Dr. Poliquin’s leadership experience at the lab during the COVID-19 pandemic was prominently highlighted. The memo also noted that he has been practising medicine in Manitoba since 2013 and has a current part-time clinical practice divided between pediatric infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Winnipeg along with rural general pediatrics in northern Manitoba and central Nunavut.
Dr. Poliquin’s hiring at the college is the result of a retirement for the current assistant registrar, Karen Bullock-Pries, who will have her last day at the organization on Sunday.
In December last year, the college announced three significant leadership transitions – which, along with the exit notice of Dr. Bullock-Pries, included the appointment of Ainslie Mihalchuk as deputy registrar, and the retirement of the organization’s chief executive officer and registrar, Anna Ziomek.
Dr. Ziomek had initially planned to leave in December, 2024. But in a late May note on the college’s website, reflecting on her two decades there, she wrote that “a year was too long for me.” Her retirement will be effective on Sunday, after which Dr. Mihalchuk will become the new CEO, whom Dr. Poliquin will report to.
With reports from Robert Fife and Steven Chase in Ottawa