Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, her husband Keding Cheng and an unknown number of her students from China were removed from Canada's only level-4 lab on July 5, CBC News has learned.
A Level 4 virology facility is a lab equipped to work with the most serious and deadly human and animal diseases. That makes the Arlington Street lab one of only a handful in North America capable of handling pathogens requiring the highest level of containment, such as Ebola.
Security access for the couple and the Chinese students was revoked, according to sources who work at the lab and do not want to be identified because they fear consequences for speaking out.
While there are few details available, experts say this could be a case of intellectual property theft or technology leakage to China.
"The National Microbiology Laboratory would have some pretty sensitive biological research material that ... could be shared either with or without authorization with foreign countries," said Gordon Houlden, director of the University of Alberta's China Institute.
"All of this is unproven, but even microbiology, sometimes especially microbiology, can have issues that involve national security."
It's something the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has already warned about, said Leah West, who teaches national security law at Carleton's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.
"Canada is facing threats from foreign governments seeking to steal intellectual property and that could include state-funded research," she said
