Article content continued

Although he had previously been married to Zaynab Khadr, the older sister of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr, Boyle has said he and Coleman were only visiting Afghanistan for a backpacking trip, and has since called the Haqqani network “a brutal and sacrilegious gang of criminal miscreants.”

Trudeau met with the Boyle family on Dec. 18. The meeting was not publicized by the government, and only became known when photos were posted on a Twitter account called “The Boyle Family.”

Photo by Twitter/The Boyle Family

The grainy photos — likely taken on a cellphone — show Boyle, Coleman and their three children meeting with the prime minister. They show Trudeau holding the couple’s infant daughter in his arms.

Citing privacy reasons and an ongoing court case, Trudeau’s office is refusing to say what was discussed in the meeting or whether staff had any knowledge of a criminal investigation into Boyle prior to granting the meeting.

A government official, who would speak only on background, said the meeting had been requested by Boyle, and that Trudeau would grant the same meeting to any Canadian who had gone through a similarly harrowing experience.

Though there are numerous cases of Canadian hostages being rescued over past two decades, there does not appear to be a recent example where former hostages were brought into the prime minister’s office for a meeting.

Four senior staff who collectively worked for prime minister Stephen Harper between 2006 and 2015 told the National Post they couldn’t recall any case where Harper had such a meeting.

They said Harper typically had phone calls with newly rescued hostages, including with James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden (released from Iraq in 2006), Mellissa Fung (released from Afghanistan in 2008), and Bob Fowler and Louis Guay (released from West Africa in 2009).