Posted by:
Nightingale
(
)
Date: May 30, 2018 12:17AM
Sorry for derail but I wanted to respond to caffiend's reference to a Canadian hostage who recently returned home.
The Canadian "aid worker" is in a different category than the others mentioned such as the US RM in South America and the three US men still held in NK.
Joshua Boyle and his American (2nd) wife reportedly went to Afghanistan on a "backpacking trip" (which would not likely be the dream destination for most people, more a place you would studiously avoid) when they were captured by Taliban and held for five years. They were released in Oct/17, along with their three kids, all born in captivity (I shudder to think of the conditions). The couple reported that a fourth child, their infant daughter, was killed which I took literally at first, but it seems from newspaper reports that the captors caused a miscarriage, still horrific but seems it could have been worse.
Aside: Both Joshua and his wife were brought up in Christian families, it is reported, and both were home-schooled.
Turns out Joshua's first wife is the sister of a well-known person in Canada these days, a former inhabitant of Guantanamo Bay (held for years as a US prisoner for killing US service personnel; as he was a Cdn citizen he was eventually returned here). She apparently lived for a time in the compound of a notorious US enemy (now deceased). Joshua apparently had a fascination with all that crowd.
So he and his family returned home to Canada in Oct/17. Bizarrely, a short time later, Mr. Boyle was charged with several very severe offences, including sexual abuse, and was put in jail here in Canada (not the happy outcome many were anticipating after their release). No information has been released about the ID of his victims or any circumstances related to the case, not unusual with sexual abuse/assault offences. He awaits trial.
I can't discuss this in too much detail as (1) it's a long way from the topic of this thread, (2) is quite off topic for this board and (3) is fraught by nature. I just wanted to reply to the "Canadian aid worker" comment - that designation gives a vastly different picture than what the reality actually is, very unfortunately.
Here are two newspaper stories about Mr. Joshua Boyle and what has turned out to be the insalubrious tale of his life (still, have to say, as his legal matters are before the court, that he is, after all, innocent until proven guilty and especially as not many details are publicly known at this time):
CBC:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/joshua-boyle-ottawa-charges-1.4470475National Post:
http://nationalpost.com/feature/joshua-boyleEdited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2018 12:19AM by Nightingale.