By Justin Brake, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Independent
October 9, 2025
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier John Hogan said Wednesday evening that he has contacted Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office and spoke with Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand about the three Newfoundland activists who were taken by Israeli military forces earlier this week. The activists, Sadie Mees, Nikita Stapleton and Devoney Ellis, were en route to Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla, a humanitarian mission of doctors, journalists and activists attempting to break Israel’s siege of Gaza and deliver air to Palestinians amid Israel’s ongoing genocide.
“I certainly hope that they’re safe, and I certainly hope that they get returned home as soon as possible,” Hogan said in response to a question from The Independent following Wednesday night’s provincial leaders’ debate in St. John’s. Hogan said he “reached out to the Prime Minister’s Office early [Wednesday] morning,” and that he “had a conversation” with Anand just before Wednesday’s debate. “She guaranteed me that they’re doing everything they can to make sure safely to this country and to this province.”
Earlier in the day Anand confirmed on X that Canada is “tracking the route of the [Freedom] flotilla and are aware that six Canadians have been detained in Israel.” She said officials with Global Affairs Canada “are in touch with Israeli authorities and, as always, are offering consular services to all Canadian citizens.”
Canada’s ambassador to Israel, Leslie Scanlon, did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment on Wednesday.
“Canada urges Israel to ensure the safety of our citizens and to facilitate their swift release,” Anand said in her post Wednesday. “We will provide more information as it becomes available.”
Abductees in Israeli prison, says Freedom Flotilla Coalition
On Wednesday the Freedom Flotilla Coalition posted an update on its website saying that lawyers with Adalah, an independent human rights organization and legal center, “confirmed that volunteers illegally abducted by the Israeli military from the Conscience and eight Thousand Madleens sailboats were transferred to Ketziot Prison in the Naqab,” which is Israel’s largest detention centre and located in the Negev desert in southern Israel.
“Lawyers representing the volunteers were not permitted to bring their mobile phones into Ashdod port, and were prevented from speaking to all 145 people. Some of the people they did speak to reported experiencing violent assaults by Israeli soldiers during the illegal seizures of the fleet,” the Coalition said.
“Legal teams continue to demand immediate access and remain on standby for tribunal hearings. The Adalah lawyers have already demanded to be present at all hearings and will provide further updates soon.”
On Thursday, just before this story was published, Adalah told media that its attorneys “attended over 50 tribunal hearings of flotilla participants at Ktzi’ot Prison this morning […] and were able to visit several others. Lawyers continue to receive reports of aggressive and violent conduct during and following Israel’s unlawful interception of their vessels, as well as poor detention conditions, including inadequate access to drinking water and, in some instances, physical and verbal abuse.” The organization also said “hearings began without legal representation and, as of [4 p.m. Israel Daylight Time], over 20 participants still detained have not yet been able to meet with attorneys, in a clear denial of access to legal counsel.” Adalah also notes “several participants, including parliamentarians from various countries, have already been deported.”
The Independent has not independently verified these claims.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition further said that as an “illegal settler state [Israel] has no legal authority to detain international volunteers aboard these ships. This seizure violates international law and defies the [International Court of Justice’s] binding orders for unimpeded humanitarian access.”
Provincial party leaders call for greater pressure on Ottawa
Progressive Conservative Leader Tony Wakeham echoed Hogan’s calls Wednesday evening for the activists to be safely returned home. “It’s terrible to hear that they’ve been taken hostage, and we will ask the federal government, we will fight,” he said. “They need to be brought home to their families. I can only imagine the stress on their families right now, but […] the federal government needs to do everything it can to bring them home safe and sound as quickly.”
NDP Leader Jim Dinn called the situation “unacceptable,” adding “Israel has no business taking our own people hostage.” He said the NDP has “drafted a letter at this point in time, which will be sent to both to premier, to Mr. Hogan, and to Mr. Wakeham to join [the NDP] in solidarity and demand to write to more of a demand to Prime Minister Carney, to demand their release and safe return.”
Mothers plead for children’s safe return
Late Wednesday afternoon Palestine solidarity activists held a rally outside St. John’s City Hall in the midst of the city’s municipal election calling for the immediate release of the flotilla members and for a two-way arms embargo on Israel. The Muse reported that mothers of the three Newfoundland activists spoke at the rally or had statements read on their behalf.
“I know she would want us to steadfastly continue the campaign to have MUN divest into the Canadian government to end its complicity and double-talk, and stop supplying arms to Israel,” Mees’s aunt Vicky Axford said on behalf of Mees’s mother, Kira Mees.
Stapleton’s mother Karen, who attended the rally, appealed to the dozens of people gathered in St. John’s to “please contact your governments—any members, any people you can reach out to,” adding “it’s not just for Nikita’s safety, it’s for the safety of every one of them.”
One of Ellis’s friends read a statement on behalf of Ellis’s mother, Misty: “As her mother, I’m asking from the deepest place in my heart for Canada to bring our six citizens home safely.”
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During Wednesday evening’s post-debate media scrum, Hogan addressed the activists’ families. “I want them to know that we will do everything we can to push the federal government.”
