Tens of thousands have been regularly protesting in Minsk and other cities since the vote, demanding that Lukashenko step down.

"Canada will always be on your side,'' Francois-Philippe Champagne said after the meeting.

Despite the detentions, protests continued Monday, with the elderly taking to the streets in several Belarusian cities, demanding the president's resignation.

President Alexander Lukashenko was abruptly inaugurated on Wednesday in what Biden called a "sham ceremony."

Thousands of Belarus citizens have taken part in more than six weeks of rallies against the authoritarian leader's reelection, which the opposition says was rigged.

The European Union has drawn up a list of around 40 people it could hit with asset freezes and travel bans.

Videos shared by local media outlets showed security forces in helmets or masks hauling protesters off the streets.

Protesters in Belarus have dismissed Lukashenko's reelection for a sixth term in the Aug. 9 vote as rigged.

On Saturday, at least 5,000 people had marched through the city demanding the release of a jailed opposition leader, in the latest in a wave of mass protests after the Aug 9 presidential vote.

Nobel prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich accused the Belarus authorities of terrorizing their own people on Wednesday as another opposition politician was detained by masked men in plain clothes.