According to a message that was passed through the Canadian embassy in China, a Canadian couple was reported to have been arrested by the Chinese government on Monday. Their son, who was the one who delivered the message, said that his parents were arrested with charges for stealing government secrets. Although they are safe they are detained are under constant watch.

The Canadians who were arrested were Kevin and Julia Garratt. The couple from Vancouver had opened a coffee shop in the city of Dan Dong, China near the border with North Korea in 2008. Peter Garratt, their son told Reuters that the Chinese officials he had met with would not tell him where his parents were being detained.

"A Canadian representative has met with both my mother and father for 30 minutes each and they passed on messages saying they are safe and eating well and have a nice place to stay, although they are under constant guard," Peter Garratt told Reuters.
In a separate interview, he said: "It seems so surreal and kind of crazy, like where did this come from?"

The very ironic part of this detainment is that the Garratts were arrested only a week after Canada singled out Chinese hackers for attacking a key computer network that was lodging a protest with China. Violating China’s state secret laws is considered a serious law in China which could lead to death or life imprisonment in the worst cases.

Kevin who was 21 years old and currently a student at the northeastern city of Dalian shared that him but he thought his parents were Christians but their detainment had nothing to do with their faith. He told Reuters in an interview that after they were detained, his parents had to return home to pick up some belongings and brought back to the facility where they are being held.

The Garratt’s coffee shop in Dan Dong offers a view of the Yulan River which is the border which separates China and North Korea. Dan Dong is an important stop for North Korean merchants and officials traveling between the two countries. Chinas has recently become extremely sensitive over its diplomatic relationship with DPRK because of constant sanctions from the United Nations and its illegal nuclear weapons.