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It was pretty funny when Canada was like "these guys totally aren't spies" and then the Canadian CSIS were like "hey welcome back!"
Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou (a Huawei exec) when she arrived in the country because Huawei had been accused of violating US sanctions on Iran, and there's a Canada-US extradition treaty. After I think 2 years in Canadian house arrest, she made some not-yet-public deal with the US to be released (likely with some fine attached).
In what is now pretty clearly a retaliatory action for Meng's arrest, China arrested two Canadian men, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, on charges of spying. One was charged with 11 years for espionage, while the other's sentencing hasn't been announced, but both were released immediately once Meng was freed.
Spavor is part of some pro-DPRK NGO who want to bring foreign capital into the DPRK.
Kovrig worked for a think-tank that describes itself as “working to prevent wars and shape policies that will build a more peaceful world”, funded by people like George Soros.
It's entirely possible they were spies, but CSIS isn't about to tell the general public, so we probably won't know unless it gets declassified some day.
Okay that was a pretty fun story. But I think I've got a better one. Imagine -- three Michaels!
Uh, as far as I know 2 guys named Mike smuggled a shitload of meth into the country and got arrested for smuggling a shitload of meth. Canada then kidnapped a Chinese person to trade back. Pretty sure that's the deal.
