The Canadian government faced the grim consequence of its refusal to pay ransoms for Canadians kidnapped abroad last week when hostage John Ridsdel was murdered by the militant group Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines.
But a former top aide to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and experienced negotiator, Jonathan Powell, says the government did the right thing — even if the outcome was tragic.
“If you pay ransoms, if governments pay ransoms, you’re simply inviting people to come back and take more hostages to make life more difficult for your citizens,” Powell told The West Block’s Tom Clark.
Powell said he realizes that this likely offers no consolation to Ridsdel’s family and the families of other Canadians still being held against their will.
“If I was the individual who had been kidnapped, I would of course want someone to get me out,” he said. “I’d want someone to pay the ransom. But as soon as you pay one ransom, as soon as a government starts paying a ransom, then you’re putting your people at risk right across the world.”
The policy of refusing to pay ransoms was formalized by the G7 nations in Northern Ireland two years ago, he added, and if other governments around the world do the same, it would mean far fewer people being taken and held for money.
WATCH: ‘Canada does not and will not pay ransom to terrorists’ says PM Trudeau after murder of John Ridsdel
When it comes to individuals already captured, Powell said, governments can talk to the groups holding them and attempt to negotiate a release without payment, but only if the group has broad political support. Abu Sayyaf, the terrorist organization that killed Ridsdel, does not.
READ MORE: Friend of John Ridsdel posts ominous warning to his killers
“They’re a rag-tag army of largely criminal individuals,” Powell said. “But right next door to them, controlling most of the territory in that part of the Philippines, there’s a group called the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and there have been over a decade of negotiations with them … it came to a peace settlement, which is at the moment going through the congress in the Philippines. So where there’s a group that has genuine support, you’ll need to engage with it.”
Powell said that families choose to pay ransoms themselves in certain cases, and the U.S. has promised not to prosecute them for it. But the most important thing is that governments do not hand over the cash themselves, or facilitate the transfers.
“The consequences of doing so for everyone else are very serious indeed.”