Canadian Boat Defies Greek Coast Guard, Claiming Multiple Captains

Greek commandos boarded and turned back a Canadian boat bound for the Gaza Strip on Monday, in the latest setback for the all-but-stymied Gaza flotilla. The Hellenic Coast Guard stopped the boat, the Tahrir, or Liberation, about 20 minutes after it set sail from the island of Crete, organizers said, and impounded it at a military dock. Aboard were 43 activists hailing from Canada, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Turkey, said Sandra Ruch, a coordinator for the boat.
“They arrived back to land into a location … where the coast guard forced them to go to. Not the original dock,” Ehab Lotayef, a Montreal-based spokesman for the ship, tells The Canadian Press.
Two Canadian activists on board the ship have provided The Canadian Press with a dramatic description of the ship’s boarding.
“We’re slowly heading back. There’s a new boat that’s pulled up beside … must be another coast guard vessel,” Dylan Penner said in a mobile telephone interview from the Greek-occupied vessel.