Committee says lab-sample theft not a big deal

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This article was published 16/05/2009 (5982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — It’s the federally appointed watchdog that’s supposed to stand guard on behalf of the community which is home to the National Microbiology lab.

But the local community liaison committee says a major security breach inside the facility containing the world’s deadliest pathogens is nothing to bark at.

Members of the committee met with scientific director Dr. Frank Plummer and a communications official from the lab on Friday to probe how a former Winnipeg researcher was able to walk out of the lab with 22 vials of biological material in January. Some of the vials included genes from the deadly Ebola virus.

Committee co-chair Audrey Vandewater said Plummer reassured the group that the material was not infectious and that the lab’s current security protocols are strict enough to prevent the accidental release of any dangerous pathogens.

Although the committee could issue recommendations, Vandewater said they will wait until the facility completes their internal security audit.

"At no point was there any danger to the public," Vandewater said. "This was a Level 2 lab that’s no different than what you find in a hospital or university."

Committee members are nominated by various sources, including representatives of three levels of government, the College of Physicians and Surgeons and Keystone Agricultural producers. The federal health minister approves all appointments.

The group’s response prompted immediate backlash from Winnipeg Centre NDP MP Pat Martin, who accused the group of lacking any critical thought.

"What started out as an important group for members of the community got hijacked — they got co-opted so readily by the bafflegab of bureaucrats that they’ve ceased to be relevant," Martin said, during a phone interview from Ottawa.

The committee was alerted to the theft on May 5 — the same day senior lab officials were contacted by RCMP.

Part of the group’s mandate is to report any incidents that are a risk to the community’s health to the public, but Vandewater said the committee wanted to wait until they had all the facts before issuing a news release.

The meeting comes on the heels of brewing controversy over a former Winnipeg researcher arrested for smuggling biological material from the federal lab across the U.S. border. Court documents allege the researcher said he stole 22 vials from the Winnipeg lab on his last day of work in January because "he did not want to start his research over from the beginning" when he started a new fellowship at a lab in Maryland.

Fargo-Moorhead news radio station KFGO broke the story earlier this week, after a reporter came across court documents.

No one from the high-security lab noticed the material was missing until close to four months later, when RCMP alerted lab staff the man had been arrested by FBI special agents at the Manitoba-North Dakota border crossing on May 5.

Some of the vials included genes from the deadly Ebola virus, but local officials have said the material is not infectious.

While U.S. officials are not taking the matter lightly, no one from the federal facility bothered to file a police report about the theft more than a week after they were alerted to the serious security breach.

The vials are considered government property.

Konan Michel Yao, 42, has been charged in the United States with smuggling and is currently in the custody of a U.S. marshal.

"Did they feel they would just let it go? This wasn’t a stapler or a box of Bic pens," Martin said. "Someone just stole the intellectual property of the government of Canada."

jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca