The woman who wrote the standards and guidelines for bio-security in Canada, says the country has fallen short of her recommendations and international standards.

"I don't think we're up to speed with it, no," said Mary Ellen Kennedy, who also helped design the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg.

Kennedy said the January theft of biological material from the lab, which only recently came to light, is a perfect example of Canada's security shortcomings.

"When someone is leaving the facility, there should be an exit procedure which allows them to account for all the material they have worked with for all their past period of time," she told CBC News.

Kennedy, who is retired from her former Health Canada job but still advises the World Health Organization on bio-safety, said she has been warning the federal government for years that it needs to do a better job of overseeing the use of micro-organisms and biotechnologies, particularly if they could be misused by terrorists.

Security under review

Health officials are now reviewing security at the National Microbiology Lab after a former researcher was caught allegedly trying to smuggle biological material into the United States.

U.S. authorities allege Konan Michel Yao had 22 vials in the trunk of his car when he tried to cross the Manitoba-North Dakota border on May 5. The vials were allegedly wrapped in aluminum foil inside a glove and packaged in a plastic bag, along with electrical wires.

'Even the Level 4, the highest level of infectious containment, I don't even have access because I don't need to.'—David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief medical health officer

Canadian health officials say the vials contained genetic material from the Ebola virus but that it was not infectious and posed no threat to the public.

Yao is in jail in North Dakota and has been charged with smuggling merchandise.

In a signed affidavit after being arrested, the 42-year-old researcher said he stole the vials, which he described as research vectors, on his last day at the lab, Jan. 21, 2009.

He said he was starting a new job with the National Institutes of Health at the Biodefense Research Laboratory in Bethesda, Md., and didn't want to start his research all over.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said there was never a public health risk, and insisted Yao did not have access to the highest-level pathogens and only worked with non-infectious material.

"You're only allowed to work with materials you need. In other words, people have no general access to the lab," said Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief medical health officer. "Even the Level 4, the highest level of infectious containment, I don't even have access because I don't need to.

"We'll be reviewing our processes again but we don't do body searches on people leaving the building. [It's] not necessary or appropriate."