Despite the Trudeau government’s abysmal failure prior to, during, and after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in August 2021, Canadian Dave Lavery simply made an appeal to move forward with “lessons learned.”

Now that Lavery has been kidnapped by the Taliban — taken from Kabul airport on November 11 — let’s hope the Canadian government is wise enough to heed his advice to secure his release.

He endured hell as the solo Canadian on the ground at Hamid Karzai International Airport for six chaotic days helping terrified people in abject crisis — with “no contact from Canadian officials.”

After the fact, Lavery’s humanitarian spirit, bravery, and commitment prevailed over ego or the anger this hero rightfully could have nursed.

More had to be done to honour a government promise to protect Afghans targeted by the Taliban who loyally worked beside Canadian troops serving there under the NATO banner.

Lavery wanted people to pull together in crisis. Listen to those on the ground. Listen to the experts. Move quickly to help. Don’t let bureaucracy or red tape stand in the way of getting aid to people and getting them to safety.

“This statement is in by no means pointing fingers or directing anything towards anybody specific. I’d like this statement to bring out some areas of concerns and possibilities that we can grow and learn from,” Lavery told me after he arrived in Antalya, Turkey.

The retired soldier, a former member of the JTF2 elite counterterrorism unit, was operating Raven Rae Consulting Services, a private humanitarian and security company in Kabul. It has been headquartered in Dubai since 2021.

Now Lavery’s in the hands of the dreaded Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence, a government source told Global News.

“We will take every single measure to bring him home,” Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told the House Tuesday.

Global Affairs only repeats it’s “monitoring” the reported “incident” and, like Joly, cited “confidentiality issues,” so can’t offer specifics. They won’t even say if Canada’s special representative to Afghanistan David Sproule is negotiating Lavery’s release. Why?

Retired Maj.-General Dean Milner understands the need for confidentiality but is sceptical of the government’s claims it’s doing everything possible to secure Lavery’s release.

“They’re not doing anything. Trudeau and his government, they are just the weakest form of government I’ve ever seen. You sure hope that the government is trying to do something about it.”

“But what’s Canada doing about it? Here's a great Canadian that brought all these Afghans out. What are you doing in Ottawa?”

Milner admitted it’s a “really tough situation.”

“I feel bad about Dave because Dave gave a lot. But the fact that he’s back over there, boy oh boy, that was a huge risk, and I don't feel comfortable that somebody’s gonna be able to get him out.”

“Our ability to get him out is really just that we don’t have anybody there. So, it's gonna come down to some Canadians asking somebody else that’s there that's communicating with the Taliban. There’s a lot of international agencies still there.”

“I think other countries would probably be doing more than Canada. I just don’t have a lot of hope for our government doing anything to be honest.”

Milner was one of three distinguished retired generals who headed the Afghan Strategic Evacuation Team (ASET). It was formed to evacuate translators and others who helped for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in the war-ravaged country.

“I’m a huge fan of Dave’s. He put his life on the line to get Afghans out of Afghanistan and other countries. He was our go-to guy for a long time. He was physically on the ground.”

“He’s a very capable guy. He was one of the key guys that helped us get a whole bunch of good Afghan language assistants out of Afghanistan. He’s the main reason I got some of my language assistants out.”

“He didn’t stop with just the Canadians. He got heavily involved in Ukraine too, helping. He’s just one of those guy’s that does everything else for everybody else.”

Lavery told me he also helped his German clients working in Afghanistan, “about 300” including family members and Brits needing to get out.

He understood the implications of the new regime.

“We need to be able to look at the new government and have dialogue and move people who are eligible to move. Sure, there are going to be groups that are going to try to get out of country different ways using inappropriate documentation, etc.”

“We don't work that way. We want to make sure we show this new government that we're not doing anything illegal. We’re going work when we can work with the new authorities. I know it's a sensitive topic.”

Whether he continued is unclear. Why Lavery returned to Kabul and why the Taliban kidnapped him isn’t certain.

“You know, he loved the country, he loved the people, so he probably said, ‘the hell with it’ and went in. And maybe tried to stay lowkey. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was heavily involved and still bringing more people out,” said Milner.

“I think the Taliban probably would've said ‘OK, enough’s enough.’ ”

“I worry about him. The Taliban knew about him. I've dealt with the Taliban and they're absolutely scary. I sure don't feel good for his situation,” said Milner.

Afghan prisons are brutal.

“One of my translators ended up in the prison, and boy, it’s a pretty bad situation. He got out, but that took a lot of work. The Afghan prisons that were horrible. This wasn’t the Taliban. I can just imagine it under the Taliban. It’s a sad occasion when we see the fact that the Taliban has him.”

Lavery served with the CAF 20 years.

“He was absolutely special forces. Quite often we don’t like to talk about our guys in special forces but hell, he’s been retired for such a long time,” said Milner.

The NATO-backed Islamic Republic of Afghanistan government crumbled when President Joe Biden pulled the US out. As the Taliban approached Kabul, the Canadian government ran away leaving people in grave risk stranded.

The disgraced ambassador to Afghanistan Reid Sirrs and his staff had fled on a half-empty military aircraft because it was “far too dangerous.” No one could get special immigration visas. No paperwork could be filed to get out of the country. The embassy was closed.

The Trudeau government had ignored pleas from military experts and people on the ground weeks ahead to start evacuating Afghan Canadians and Afghans who assisted the Canadian mission.

“We don't believe anybody took our reach-outs very seriously. We believe they could have tapped into our resources, utilized us a little better, had a lot more synergy in aid for the actual event that did take place starting on the 15th of August,” said Lavery.

“I was in country for 11 years running my small business. So, we had already a lot of resources in place that we were able to offer. The main one that we were offering was in life support.”

“We took it upon ourselves with a good assistance of a lot of veterans back home to start looking at how we can support and assist in in the best positive way.”

That included setting up safe houses in Kabul for Afghans.

“In some cases, the Taliban were tracking them down, others were high risk and vulnerable.”

When Canadian military flights finally arrived, Lavery felt utterly betrayed. They took his son Brant but refused to let his wife Jinping Zhang-Lavery, who held a Chinese passport, board without him. He wouldn’t leave.

Yet, he took the high road.

“Lessons learned, please tap into the resources you have … take some ownership in an understanding of what went wrong and how can we fix it.”

“Let’s not beat up anybody over this. Let's just try moving forward because we're not going to give up as long as we still have families under our watch.”

Since Lavery started Raven Rae in 1993, the incredible Canadian has headed into the epicentre of danger to help and save people — Canadians, Germans, Brits, Afghans, Africans, Ukrainians, and others.

He's beloved and respected by grateful people in many countries. He’s a great Canadian respected and loved by many here.

Canadians must demand the Trudeau government do everything possible to rescue him, like it claims it’s doing.

Take his advice. Work feverishly with other nations and people in Afghanistan.

Fight for him! Fight hard!

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