As a former elite soldier with the Canadian military, David Lavery is trained to stay calm while confronting danger. In his career he has jumped out of helicopters, faced terrorists and survived suicide bomb attacks.
But it was only when he was imprisoned by the Taliban did Lavery, 64, say he experienced true fear.
“That’s when a lot of things change. That’s when you know your freedom is gone. That’s when you know you’re now under the captivity of these individuals who will try to extract whatever they can,” said Lavery in an interview with CTV News.
Before his release at the end of January, Lavery spent 77 days in Taliban custody. They suspected him of being a spy.
About one month of his detention was spent in isolation in a basement cell stained with the “human sweat and oils” of prisoners before him.
Remembrance Day Arrest
On November 11, 2024, Lavery landed at Kabul Airport on his last assignment for the Veterans Transition Network (VTN) to help bring Afghans who had ties to the Canadian armed forces to safety.
He was carrying visa and immigration documents for 18 people belonging to two families.
After he cleared customs at the airport’s VIP terminal, he was followed by two men who handcuffed and blindfolded him, then drove him to an unknown location.
“You’re trained to break free if you can and run away…but there’s no way you can do that in this situation - so you just succumb,” Lavery said from Dubai, U.A.E. where he is currently recuperating after his release.
Lavery said his fear was amplified by the weight of responsibility.
Because he wasn’t able to “factory reset” his laptop and cell phone, not only did the Taliban now have access to his personal information, but also his business contacts, and names of the people he was rescuing, some of whom were in hiding.
Compromised assets
In 2010, he started Raven Rae Consulting in Kabul, a company that helps foreigners stay safe while navigating the murky and sometimes dangerous politics of doing business in Afghanistan.
When the U.S. military pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021, chaos ensued as the Taliban regained control of the country.
Lavery was working to extract European clients, when VTN urgently reached out. The Canadian government had evacuated its embassy, leaving thousands of Afghan-Canadians and people who had once worked with the Canadian military stranded.
Lavery walked the perimeter of the airport with his team to find Afghan-Canadians among the desperate throngs that gathered at the airport gates. In the days after Kabul fell, Lavery rescued more than 100 people and got them on airlifts.
It was then that he earned the nickname “Canadian Dave.”
Fast forward three years at that same airport where his wife Junping Zhang-Lavery was anxiously waiting for him to walk out.
She searched the terminal for three hours. After showing his photograph to travellers and staff, she found out that he had been taken by officers with Afghanistan’s General Directorate of Intelligence.
Junping then contacted Lavery’s son, Brant, who managed Raven Rae’s operations.
“I knew that Dad’s concern would be Junping and not himself in the early stages. I wanted to get her to safety,” said Brant Lavery from Ankara, Turkey. There was concern that the Taliban knew where she lived, so Junping was taken to a safehouse while Brant made plans to get her on a plane.
He also had to activate contingency plans for the Afghans that the company was hired by VTN to get to Canada. They also had to be hidden in safe houses. Twelve were able to get on planes, while six had to escape by ground routes through Pakistan.
A direct line to the minister
Brant said their network of Canadian soldiers was able to help them connect with consular officials within 24 hours at Global Affairs Canada in Ottawa.
He also made direct contact with Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, who was in Lima, Peru at the time attending the APEC conference.
Because Canada considers the Taliban a terrorist entity, it does not have diplomatic ties with Afghanistan. That means it has to work through an intermediary. Brant says the Qatari government became the primary negotiators for his father’s release.
Minister Joly gave the family her direct line so they could reach her for updates.
“My wife is pregnant, and I told the minister I hoped Dad would be released by late March or early April in time to see his grandchild,” said Brant.
Kidnapping and ransom insurance
A few weeks prior to Lavery’s arrest, Raven Rae had purchased kidnapping and ransom insurance for their employees. After Lavery’s detainment, Brant activated the policy which gave the family access to round-the-clock advisors. The advisors kept them calm but warned that in previous cases, foreigners captured by the Taliban were held for at least 18 months.
The insurance company advised the Lavery family not to speak to the media, but if they must, to limit risk by playing down Lavery’s experience with the special forces.
He was a founding member of Canada’s elite JTF2 counterterrorism unit.
“They (the Taliban) would have known if they did their homework, but we didn’t want to make Dad a higher value asset,” Brant said. The Lavery family discussed the possibility that they may have to pay a ransom, but Brant said the demand never came
Threatened with torture
Meanwhile, Lavery was spending his days in Cell No. 2.
It was in the basement and had red industrial carpeting. There was a surveillance camera mounted in the corner and was lit only by light that filtered in through a narrow window.
Lavery had a bucket, a plastic bottle for his urine and a small cup for tea. He slept on a thin mattress the size of a yoga mat and had a pillow and two blankets.
But what Lavery remembers most are the stains.
He could see the imprint of a head and shoulders marked by human sweat and oil from a prisoner who leaned against the cement wall.
Mr. Blue’s interrogation
Each day he was given five bathroom breaks that coincided with daily calls to prayer. Every other day he would get the opportunity to wash himself. He was given food and chai.
Lavery was interrogated three times in a room down a long corridor from his cell by a man he called “Mr. Blue,” who was always accompanied by two armed guards.
“He was intimidating,” Lavery says, and asked questions about the immigration papers he had and the photos they found on his phone.
He said although the Taliban did threaten to torture him, they left him unharmed.
To get better treatment, Lavery, who in January 2023 had hip replacement surgery, played up “the pain” and groaned about “being an old man.”
They even brought him to a medical clinic when he started to feel ill.
The mind movie
To get through the isolation, Lavery said he created a television series in his mind. He would piece together moments with his wife and extended family and imagine how the future would progress.
Each day came with a new chapter in the series.
In mid-December, as negotiations for his release progressed, he was moved out of the jail to a house where four American men were being detained. One of them was also previously held in Cell No. 2 and told Lavery he was forced to share the space with seven other men.
At the house, he was given a pen to write his daily journal entries.
A few days later just before the start of the new year, he was moved again, handcuffed and hooded and taken to his own home in Kabul where he was placed under house arrest.
A stray cat he named “Mama” kept him company and he found comfort in old family photos left behind in the house his wife had abandoned.
An unanticipated reunion
On Jan. 26, he was put on a commercial plane in Kabul and flown to Doha.
When Lavery landed, he was greeted by a row of Qatari officials and the Canadian ambassador to the state of Qatar, Isabelle Martin.
Behind them he could see his wife Junping and his son Brant.
Jumping began running down the hall toward him.
“It was like she was doing a 100-metre dash. She hit me like a vice grip. Bang! And wouldn’t let go. It was emotional to feel the warmth of her body.”
Sitting beside him, Junping recounted her what went through her mind.
“You’re never leaving me again.”
Brant says the Qatari officials told him that 77 days was a record time for negotiating a prisoner release.
“It was like Christmas. It was a shock - we were expecting maybe one phone call a month - not to have him there in person,” said Brant.
After 15 years of operating in Afghanistan, the Laverys are now considering closing down their Kabul office. But for now, they’re celebrating a reunion that came much earlier than anticipated.
