When the phone rings at the Halliday residence everything comes to a standstill.

That's the way it's been in the Digby, Nova Scotia home since Sheree Halliday's husband Phillip was detained in a Spanish prison nearly two years ago.

The whole ordeal began when Phillip Halliday got a job as a mate on a decommissioned coast guard ship, the "Destiny Empress." But police stopped the ship off the coast of Spain in December 2009 and roughly 1.5 tonnes of cocaine was discovered in the hull of the ship.

Halliday was arrested, along with the rest of the crew.

"It's been hard, a lot of ups and downs," Halliday told CTV News via phone on Thursday. "A lot of crying."

Halliday has been detained in the Spanish prison since his arrest, although he has maintained his innocence, saying he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"I would never do that to anyone," says Halliday. "I hate drugs."

Since his arrest, Halliday suffered a gall bladder attack, had surgery and lost 60 pounds. His family and friends have planned a rally to raise awareness about his ordeal.

"We need them (the government) to pick up the phone and call their counterparts in Spain and find out why Phillip Halliday has been in a Spanish prison for 683 days," says rally organizer Teri Faessler.

Sheree Halliday says she hasn't received any help from the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, or from her local MP.

Foreign Affairs declined an interview, but it did say the Spanish legal system is such that a person can be detained for four years without trial, and there is nothing the Canadian government can do except express concern, which it says has already been done.

"It makes me feel that they have abandoned Phillip and myself and our family," says Sheree, who has two adult children.

Phillip Halliday is entitled to a five-minute phone call each day, and his family is worried that could be the only contact they have with Phillip for at least two more years, unless something changes soon.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell