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Canada’s only Biosafety Level 4 lab — the highest and strictest level of biocontainment — is again looking for new leadership.
In a Saturday interview, Jason Kindrachuk confirmed he is stepping down as vice-president of the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg on June 28.
He said he will return full-time to his research lab at the University of Manitoba “doing the things I think I’m best at” and where “my passion lies.”
“It’s a real opportunity to get back to working with my international colleagues directly on the ground, not only in response to outbreaks, but also from a preparedness standpoint and to think about where Canada lies in that space,” he said.
Kindrachuk, Canada Research Chair in the molecular pathogenesis of emerging viruses, is a world-renowned expert on Ebola.
He has continued to do academic research during early mornings, evenings and weekends while leading the NML, but said that dual role is not sustainable.
His university lab has provided support for Ebola responses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including in fall 2025 and the current outbreak in northeastern DRC.
Kindrachuk said he worries the world is becoming “too nonchalant” about outbreaks and the impacts they have on local communities, the economy and global health.
They can quickly “evolve into much larger events where you’re not only behind the eight ball, but you’re miles and miles behind the eight balls trying to catch up.”
He hopes to be on the ground in Kinshasa in July.
CBC News reached out to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) for comment.
Rotating door of leadership
The Winnipeg-based NML is the only lab in Canada that can study the world’s most dangerous pathogens which have no known vaccines or treatments — including the Ebola and Marburg viruses. A second lab at the University of Saskatchewan is scheduled to be operational by 2027.
Over the last 10 years, the NML has had four people officially take on its top leadership role as scientific director general or vice-president.
Matthew Gilmour was appointed in February 2015. Guillaume Poliquin took over in May 2020. Dr. Jean Longtin was appointed vice-president in January 2025 and Kindrachuk replaced him just six months later.
Longtin had been tasked with implementing recommendations of the special committee on the Canada-China relationship, stemming from concerns about Chinese espionage.
In 2019, CBC News broke the story that two Canadian researchers of Chinese origin, Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng, were escorted out of the NML in Winnipeg. They were later fired.
Declassified Canadian Security Intelligence Service documents tabled in the House of Commons in February 2024 said the couple provided confidential scientific information to China and posed a credible security threat to the country.
Kindrachuk said he couldn’t comment on whether he had been working through the recommendations, what vulnerabilities remain or how the scrutiny affected staff.
Gary Kobinger, who was chief of the NML’s Special Pathogens Biosafety Level 4 Program between 2008 and 2016, said Kindrachuk’s resignation is “unfortunate and concerning.”
“This high turnover of a highly impactful position in Canada’s preparedness and response capacity is communicating a real issue, and the issue or issues seems to sit outside of the NML,” Kobinger wrote in an email.
“All these good people taking this position with all their energy and enthusiasm for only resigning shortly after is sending a clear signal.”
Kobinger noted the NML was meant to be a northern version of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Led by HIV/AIDS researcher Dr. Frank Plummer for 25 years, the NML “became a shining beacon” during the first SARS emergency and again during Ebola outbreaks in 2014-16.
Now outgoing director of the University of Texas Medical Branch and a professor of micro-immunology, Kobinger was instrumental in developing the Ebola treatment ZMapp and the rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine while he was at the NML.
“Since then what we hear are crickets,” he wrote.
“Maybe Jason’s decision to move out, repeating again the same decision as other leaders of the NML in only the past 10 years, will be seen as an important opportunity to review and make the necessary changes in governance that clearly the NML and PHAC desperately need.”
After two scientists working at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg were stripped of their security clearance, national security experts have raised concerns about the possibility of espionage and, on Wednesday, MPs demanded answers in the House of Commons.
Winnipeg ‘unique hub’ of research excellence
For his part, Kindrachuk describes his time at the NML as a “great experience” and said he leaves with a greater understanding of how PHAC works with other federal, provincial, territorial and municipal labs, and how it can collaborate more with academic research at universities.
He had nothing but praise for the researchers, technical and support staff at the NML, saying they are still recognized internationally for their world-class work, in particular with emerging infectious diseases.
Collaboration with the University of Manitoba creates “a very unique hub” of research excellence, he added.
“I walk away not feeling concerned at all about where the lab’s going to go. The lab is going to continue to function.”
