Climate Action Network Canada calls on Canada to speak out against Israel’s illegal detention of flotilla participants bringing aid to Gaza

From Climate Action Network Canada, CAN-Rac. Sierra Club Canada is a member of CAN-Rac.

Unceded Anishinaabe Algonquin Territories [OTTAWA], 9 October 2025:

Climate Action Network Canada stands in solidarity with the hundreds of participants from the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), and the Thousand Madleens to Gaza (TMTG) who have been illegally abducted and detained by Israel in international waters, including nine Canadians. These flotillas are peaceful, non-violent convoys of volunteers that were headed to Gaza in an attempt to break Israel’s illegal blockade of the enclave, which is currently causing famine and starvation for more than half a million people.

This humanitarian effort comes after two horrifying years of genocide in Gaza. While the new ceasefire deal brings relief and hope for an end to the violence, it does not erase the suffering and loss that Palestinians have endured and continue to face, nor does it erase Canada’s long complicity and silence. Israel’s attacks over the last two years have directly killed at least 67,000 people—though the actual number of people killed through unaccounted for or indirect causes is likely in the hundreds of thousands—and follow decades of oppression and displacement. The Flotilla aimed to bring life-saving aid and to confront international complicity in the ongoing genocide, building on a long history of Palestinian resistance.

Of the nearly 500 participants from the GSF, which was intercepted on October 2nd, six are still being illegally detained by Israel, as of the time of this publication. On October 8th, 145 FFC and TMTG participants were also illegally intercepted, abducted, and detained—including six Canadians on board the Conscience.

We wholeheartedly echo our International Network’s condemnation of Israel’s interception of the Flotilla in international waters, and the subsequent abduction of the activists on board. The illegal and inhumane treatment of these activists is not an isolated incident, but rather one instance of the pattern of violence with impunity that Israel has been enacting against the Palestinian people for decades.

As civil society, we call out the Canadian government’s inadequate response to these abductions, including those of its own citizens, when we have often heard Canada call for the respect of human rights and democracy in international fora. CAN-Rac calls on our government to:

• Condemn this latest act of illegal aggression by Israel;
• Demand the immediate release of all those abducted by Israeli forces and their ships, and their unhindered passage in continuing on their humanitarian mission safely.

We reiterate our demand that Canada halt its arms exports to Israel and use every tool at its disposal to ensure that Israel ends the genocide, following the six provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice:

• Take all measures in its power to prevent the commission of genocide;
• Ensure that its military does not commit genocide;
• Prevent and punish incitement of genocide;
• Enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance;
• Prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of genocide.

There can be no climate justice without human rights. As a group of organizations working in a state built on colonialism, we recognize the importance of decolonization everywhere. Until the conventions and institutions to protect the most fundamental human rights are respected, climate action, democracy and international cooperation will continue to crumble before our eyes. CAN-Rac calls on Prime Minister Carney and his government to follow up its recognition of the State of Palestine with real action to uphold the rights of the Palestinian people.