Government mum on Chinese spying allegations against Canadian couple 

BY GIUSEPPE VALIANTE ,NATIONAL BUREAU

FIRST POSTED: TUESDAY, AUGUST 05, 2014 05:43 PM EDT | UPDATED: TUESDAY, AUGUST 05, 2014 05:50 PM EDT

OTTAWA — The Canadian government appeared tongue-tied Tuesday by China's claim that a Canadian couple is suspected of stealing Chinese military research secrets.

China's foreign ministry said Kevin Garratt and Julia Dawn Garratt are under investigation for espionage, one week after the Harper government accused China of hacking into the computers of Canada's research arm, the National Research Council.

Canada's rare criticism of the Chinese last week sparked a strong rebuke from the Chinese Embassy in Canada, which called the accusations "neither professional nor responsible."

This week, the Canadian government hasn't commented on the arrest of two Canadians who run a coffee shop along the China/North Korea border and who have lived in China for 30 years.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird didn't release a statement Tuesday and neither did the Prime Minister's Office.

A spokesperson for Baird's department said Canada's consular services are "providing assistance...to the Garratt family," but refused to say if or where the two Canadians are being detained.

Security and espionage expert and former CSIS manager Michel Juneau-Katsuya says China's allegation the Garratts are spies "is ludicrous."

He said Canada wouldn't send devout Christians — irritants to the Chinese state — to spy for Canada in a region where Canada doesn't have any geopolitical interest.

He said China could be retaliating for last week's accusations that it tried to steal Canada's research secrets.

"(Canada) was very blunt" last week," Juneau-Katsuya said. "More blunt than during the last five years."

China's foreign ministry said the Garratts are under investigation for "collecting and stealing intelligence materials related to Chinese military targets and important Chinese national defence scientific research programs."

"Guess what? That's the exact (nature of the) accusations that Canada made against China last week," Juneau-Katsuya said. "Maybe we have a tit-for-tat here."