Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canadian Armed Forces veteran David Lavery is “safe” in Qatar, months after a network supporting veterans raised concerns about his disappearance in Afghanistan and his possible arrest by the Taliban government.
In a social media post on Sunday, Joly said he “just spoke to David Lavery when he arrived safely in Qatar from Afghanistan. He is in good spirits.”
Joly also thanked Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Qatar’s foreign minister, for “helping facilitate the release of our Canadian citizen.”
According to a source with knowledge of Lavery’s release, the former Canadian soldier was detained in Kabul on November 11, 2024, Remembrance Day. The Canadian government contacted the Qatari government for assistance in securing Lavery’s release.
I just spoke to David Lavery about his safe arrival to Qatar from Afghanistan. He’s in a good mood.
Thanks to my Qatari counterpart, @MBA_AlThani_for helping facilitate the release of our Canadian citizen.
Qatari mediators coordinated with senior Canadian officials and used contacts in Afghanistan to send a medical team to assess Lavery’s condition and provide him with care, while also facilitating contact between Lavery and his family, the source said.
Finally, the source said, Lavery underwent a medical evaluation upon arrival in Doha and is now with his family.
In November, the Veterans Transition Network said it was “deeply concerned for the well-being of David Lavery, known to all those he helped as ‘Canadian Dave.'”
On Sunday, the network issued a statement saying it was “relieved and very pleased to confirm the safe release of [Lavery] of Taliban detention in Afghanistan.”
“We are immensely relieved to know that a Canadian friend, father, veteran and humanitarian is out of harm’s way,” Oliver Thorne, executive director of the Veterans Transition Network, said in the statement. “Our work over the past three years to evacuate Afghan allies who supported Canada’s mission would not have been possible without Dave’s commitment and personal bravery.”
The statement said the network and Lavery’s family had “intentionally released little information” over the past two and a half months “in order to minimize media speculation that could have put Dave at greater risk or endangered the potential for its liberation.
Since before the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in 2021, Lavery had been working to provide aid and assistance to eligible Afghan migrants. The Veterans Transition Network noted in November that Lavery repeatedly traveled to Afghanistan to perform humanitarian work and to lay wreaths at the Canadian memorial in Kabul on Remembrance Day.
CBC News has reached out to Global Affairs Canada for additional information.
