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For the first several months, the messages suggested Canada was willing, even eager, to get Jack Letts out of a Kurdish prison in northern Syria.

Global Affairs Canada discussed possible exit routes for the former resident of ISIL-controlled Raqqa. They asked the joint British-Canadian citizen’s jailers to provide him medical help, and said they were “extremely concerned” by reports he had been tortured.

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“We are working diligently on your son’s file,” consular officials insisted to Letts’ U.K.-based parents.

Then earlier this year, the diplomats’ tone changed abruptly, the same officials saying their hands were tied by a lack of Canadian presence in Syria. Their ability to help the Muslim convert dubbed “Jihadi Jack” by British media was “extremely limited,” they now said.

The change in tone amid a 16-month exchange of emails — copies of which were obtained by the National Post — has left parents John Letts and Sally Lane deeply frustrated — and wondering if outside powers have gotten to the Canadian government.