What happened in Wuhan? Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole demanded Tuesday that the Public Health Agency of Canada release more information about links between Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is being investigated as the possible birthplace of the COVID virus. Two scientists at the Canadian lab, Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were fired in January after CSIS asked for their security clearances to be revoked. The Public Health Agency has handed heavily redacted documents to the Commons Canada-China relations committee, justifying the blacked out sections by pointing to legal obligations to confidentiality, which O'Toole called a "deeply troubling cover-up." "How could two scientists with deep connections to the Chinese military be able to gain access to a high-level Canadian security-cleared laboratory with the world's most dangerous viruses?" O'Toole said. "We have some serious questions about this apparent breach of protocol and the ongoing disconnect between Mr. Trudeau and the reality of the Communist regime in Beijing." U.S. President Joe Biden has ordered American officials to investigate whether the pandemic was a result of a lab leak at the Wuhan lab. American intelligence agencies have reported that researchers at the Wuhan lab fell ill in November, 2019, before any of the cases associated with a market in the city. Experts have speculated that "gain of function" experiments that make viruses more deadly may have led to the creation of the virus, which then leaked into the general population, setting off a pandemic that has killed more than 3.5 million people around the world. The Globe and Mail reported last month that scientists in the special pathogens unit at the Winnipeg lab had worked with Chinese military researchers on infectious diseases such as Ebola, Lassa fever and Rift Valley fever. Last week, when pressed in the House of Commons about a possible Canadian link to research in Wuhan, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned the Conservatives against anti-Asian racism. No interview: The Ottawa Citizen reports that military police looking into allegations of an inappropriate relationship by Gen. Jon Vance in 2015 did not interview the general but did consult satirical magazine Frank. News of allegations that Vance, the former chief of the defence staff, had an inappropriate relationship has increased scrutiny of the Canadian Forces's often insufficient handling of sexual harassment cases. On Tuesday, former Supreme Court justice Morris Fish tabled a 400-page report on the military justice system that determined that sexual misconduct in the Forces remains as "rampant" now as it was in 2015. Global News reports: Fish also noted throughout the military’s continued struggle to address sexual misconduct, efforts to do so have been sparked by journalists investigating different facets of the matter. “They all begin with disclosures by investigative journalists,” he wrote, flagging key reporting from Maclean’s in 1998, from L’actualité and Maclean’s in 2014, and from Global News this year. Opening up: Provincial leaders are unveiling reopening plans as COVID case loads continue to come down across the country. Doug Ford is leaning against reopening schools, the Star reports. Lecce fail: The Star has an investigative story based on documents obtained under access-to-information law that shows Education Minister Stephen Lecce told parents that schools were safe when experts were advising him that they didn't know if that was true. “The main thing is just public trust,” said Ashleigh Tuite, epidemiologist with University of Toronto. She said if the government had only been willing to “acknowledge the fact that there was that uncertainty”—and implement a clear-eyed strategy to understand school risk, “there would be a lot less anxiety.” Mix and match: TheNational Advisory Committee on Immunization says it is OK to mix and match vaccines. Time to bring our children home: Tanya Talaga has a column from Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, where 100 hand drummers "boomed forward in unity, gathered here from other nations and communities throughout Okanagan and Kamloops," mourning the tragedy at Kamloops Indian Residential School, where the remains of 215 children were discovered last week. Talaga draws links between institutional indifference shown to the suffering of children at residential schools and similar attitudes to children in care and missing and murdered Indigenous women in recent years. Maclean's has a statement from Senator Mary Jane McCallum, who went to residential school in the Pas beginning at the age of five, that offers insight into the difficult family dynamics caused by the system. As a child who went to residential school at the age of five, I want to send a message to the parents and all the relatives. I know you loved me. I never let you go. You were always in my thoughts, in my heart, in my tears, in my being. How could you not be? Indigenous leaders are calling for an apology from the Roman Catholic Church for its role in the residential school system, which it has so far declined to provide. Green dissent: Green Party Leader Annamie Paul, who does not have a seat in the House, faces dissension over the party's position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Two MPs have objected to Paul's stance, pushing for a stronger condemnation of Israeli military actions. Greetings, Elks! The Edmonton Football Team, which gave up its old name last year, has settled on a new name: Edmonton Elks. Hockey night in Winnipeg: A small number of vaccinated health-care workers will be in the stands today when the Jets and the Canadiens meet in Winnipeg for the first game of their second round series of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Habs are headed to Winnipeg after sending the Leafs to the golf course on Monday night, something that has long-suffering Leafs fans disconsolate. — Stephen Maher | 
