The public put significant pressure on the federal government to resolve the kidnapping of high-profile diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay, while showing comparatively little support for missing freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout, documents obtained by CTV.ca reveal.

In the first seven weeks of Fowler and Guay's four-month-long captivity in Western Africa, Foreign Affairs and senior government officials received several dozen emails from members of the public, pressing for details about their case.

But in Lindhout's case, only one person bothered to send a letter to Foreign Affairs on her behalf, even after she had been held against her will in Somalia for more than 90 days.

Through the Access to Information Act, CTV.ca recently obtained copies of all of the emails, letters and faxes sent, or forwarded, to Foreign Affairs about Fowler and Guay, during the first seven weeks of their captivity.

Starting only two days after the pair of Canadians first disappeared in Niger, a flurry of messages were sent to government officials, including to high-level civil servants, diplomats, cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister's Office.

On Dec. 16, one letter writer told a sitting MP that he wished to "beseech quick and urgent action on the part of the Canadian federal government to locate and protect Louis Guay and Robert Fowler."

Two days later, an all-caps email which arrived in the inbox of Defence Minister Peter MacKay aptly summed up the tone of the incoming message from the public: "Please do all possible to free Bob Fowler and his team now. It is essential that Canada act now."

The same day, another email instructed MacKay to "devote the maximum possible efforts your office and our country can generate in pursuit of the safe return of these men and their driver."

The next day, an email was sent to MacKay, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and the Prime Minister's Office, demanding that the two diplomats be returned to Canada "with all the energy that our country and government can generate."

And as time went on, the tone of the letters sent to Ottawa did not get any less urgent.

On Boxing Day last December, one letter writer sent a message intended for John McNee, Canada's ambassador to the United Nations, wanting to know "what is Canada doing at this point to find all three men (the diplomats and their driver) and what, in turn we can do to support your efforts in that sense?"

Less than two weeks later, another member of the public demanded to know what the government was doing about the kidnapping: "How about giving the press a statement on what you may or may not know concerning Fowler's disappearance? He is a prominent citizen and we have a right to know what attempts are being made for his return."

Some of the letters sent to the government regarding the Fowler and Guay kidnapping were deemed too sensitive to be released as four pages were blanked out in their entirety when sent to CTV.ca. The body of an email meant for Guay's family was similarly blocked.

Appeal for Lindhout

But the public pressure to bring home the diplomats appears to have been much higher than the resolve to free Lindhout, who was kidnapped for ransom in Somalia last August.

A separate Access to Information request for emails sent to Foreign Affairs about Lindhout, returned only one document that had been sent on her behalf during the first 90 days of her captivity.

"As you may know, Amanda Lindhout of Sylvan Lake, Alberta, is a freelance journalist and was abducted at gunpoint near Mogadishu, Somalia in August of this year. As of yet she has not been released," the writer said in the email to Foreign Affairs on Oct. 8, 2008.

"A fundamental responsibility of a sovereign state is to protect its citizens at home as well as abroad. I am asking what the Department has been doing to facilitate Amanda's release. I understand that for reasons of operational security, your response will be limited."

Nearly ten months after her abduction, Lindhout has still not been freed.

A woman claiming to be Lindhout called CTV's National newsroom on Wednesday afternoon, reading a statement to the person who answered the phone.

The woman pleaded with the Canadian government to get her home and said she was need in "immediate aid" for her survival.