Negotiate with terrorists? Of course we do

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"Canada does not negotiate with terrorists, for any reason" – Maxime Bernier, Canada's foreign minister, 2007.

"The United States does not negotiate with terrorists," Victoria Nuland, U.S. State Department spokeswoman, 2013.

Despite such oft-repeated denials, Canada and the United States very much do negotiate with terrorists. And sometimes we give them money, or prisoners, to meet their demands.

This weekend provided evidence of both governments striking deals with organizations widely considered terrorist.

On Sunday, news broke that Canadian nun Gilberte Bussière, 74, had been freed by the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram after almost two months in captivity.

It was clear that her release was negotiated. And it was clear that the negotiations, which also freed two Italian clergymen, involved the Canadian government and Boko Haram, infamous for the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls and classified as a terrorist organization by Canada and most other Western countries.

The Italian government referred to "an operation conducted brilliantly," thanking Canada and Cameroon for their assistance. And the Agence-France-Presse wire service, citing military sources, reported that the nun along with two Italian clergymen were freed "as part of a prisoner exchange with a fee being paid."

So, while Canada's foreign-affairs department repeated its claim that "Canada's policy is clear. We don't pay ransoms," it is all but certain that a ransom was paid, by someone, at the behest of the Canadian and Italian officials who were conducting the negotiations.

And on Saturday, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, America's only prisoner of war, had been freed by the Taliban after nearly five years in captivity – in exchange for five of "its most prominent figures," according to The New York Times, who were released from Guantanamo Bay to freedom in Qatar in exchange for the prisoner.

So both Canada and the United States do indeed negotiate with, and pay, terrorists. Neither of these deals was unprecedented. Negotiations with the Taliban around a potential settlement to the 13-year-old war in Afghanistan have taken place, on and off, for years, involving both the Obama and Bush administrations and NATO forces, including Canada.

And the Harper government has previously negotiated with terrorist groups and had ransom paid to them in exchange for prisoners. That's what they did in 2011 to free diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay from their captivity in the hands of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, who were paid $1.1-million (through an intermediary, possibly Libya) for the diplomats. Leaked internal memos made it clear that AQIM used the money to buy weapons – as Boko Haram will likely do.

On one hand, these are dangerous precedents: such deals will only encourage Boko Haram and the Taliban to continue to kidnap people, and Boko Haram, like AQIM, will continue to finance itself substantially through such ransom payments. By striking deals, life becomes even more dangerous for Westerners in Nigeria and Afghanistan, and the pace of kidnappings and payments threatens to escalate.

But does any Canadian prime minister want to see a nun murdered by terrorists on his watch? Would an American president resist the opportunity to free a popular and well-regarded military man (and father) from unspeakable captivity?

If countries really want to pursue "no negotiations with terrorists" policies – and reap the potential benefits of greater security – they need to do what Britain did in Iraq: Allow a number of innocent civilians to die at the hands of terrorist kidnappers.

That's what happened to Kenneth Bigley, a British engineer who was kidnapped in Iraq in 2004. Videos began appearing showing him begging for his life; his family and friends mounted a large-scale campaign to have him ransomed. Britain's Labour government stated that it was doing everything possible to free Mr. Bigley, short of negotiating or paying ransom (though this probably means they conducted at least preliminary negotiations). This led to a video, broadcast on British TV, in which a beaten-looking Mr. Bigley declared: "Tony Blair is lying. He doesn't care about me. I'm just one person."

Less than a month later, Mr. Bigley was decapitated – followed a few weeks later by British-Irish aid worker Margaret Hassan, who was killed in November after London refused to negotiate ransom.

Some believe that the Blair government paid a steep political price for its rigid no-ransom policy. This may be why it was one of few modern Western governments to actually stick with such a policy – rather than simply claiming it doesn't negotiate, as Canada and the United States have done.