For some, the death threat tucked in a bouquet of flowers would have been a deal breaker. Others might have backed off the first time they came under Israeli army gunfire, or when their neighbour shot them, or simply at the explicit request of the Canadian government.
But for Kevin Neish, those were all warnings to be disregarded - blips in a lifelong campaign for social justice. And so it was with his usual disregard for official warnings and his own past experience that the 53-year-old Victoria resident joined an aid convoy intent on breaking the Israeli blockade of Gaza. His job onboard: "human shield."
Mr. Neish was reportedly in custody in Israel last night, hours after naval commandos stopped and boarded the flotilla in a violent encounter off the coast of Gaza. Supporters hadn't heard from him as of Monday evening, nearly a day after his arrest along with 700 other pro-Palestinian activists. Ottawa said late Monday no Canadians were hurt in the raid.
The veteran activist and retired mechanics instructor was on his second trip to Gaza, friends said. He was believed to be on board the Challenger II, one of six ships in the flotilla carrying 600 people that is believed to be under guard in an Israeli port.
Mr. Neish joined the convoy as a human shield. Friends said he drew on his experience as a rugby player, blocking the hallway and taking a beating by soldiers so as to buy journalists on board his ship time to file stories in the event of being boarded.
"His role would be to stand in a narrow hallways and passively block the hallway if the soldiers were to come on the ship," said Zoe Blunt, an environmental activist and a friend fo Mr. Neish's. "We're hopeful that he's alive and unhurt."
He's previously undertaken similar missions in hostile environments such as Colombia and Cuba, one friend says.
"It's what Kevin does, it's what he believes in," friend Anne Hansen said from Victoria Monday.
"Basically, being an international citizen accompanying people in wartorn places, it gives to protetction to people who are under threat."
Friends and colleagues haven't heard from Mr. Neish since Thursday, when they received a text message from him saying that the Canadian embassy asked him not to join the mission.
"He told them instead, they should be asking Israel not to attack the aid convoy," Ms. Blunt said in a written statement.
Mr. Neish's career as a social advocate started early. His father, Elgin (Scotty) Neish, was a B.C. fisherman, union leader and communist (Mr. Neish still has a photo of his parents with Fidel Castro). His mother was an outspoken feminist.
"Throughout his whole life, he's been concerned about human rights and social justice," Ms. Hansen said.
Mr. Neish's older brother, Steven, said his brother has the proper demeanour for his activist streak.
"He has a very strong sense of social justice," Steven Neish said Monday. "He's got a good personality for it: very calm, very laid back, a non-violent person."
The elder Mr. Neish hadn't heard from his brother Monday evening, but said he was "disappointed" to see Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defending the action while Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood nearby. He said Mr. Harper's presence and willingness to stand by Mr. Netanyahu while he addressed reporters spontaneously amounted to approval "that really gives them [Israel]a green light or more justification to do things like the things they've done. And that puts my brother in danger."
It's not like the younger Mr. Neish has ever avoided trouble, however. In 1989, as a 32-year-old employee of a Victoria labourers group, Mr. Neish went to Guatemala in the middle of an attempted coup as an escort to a Guatemalan labour lawyer.
While there, he endured a high-speed chase, saw a bomb planted in his hotel parking garage and received a bouquet of Mother's Day flowers with a note threatening him and his family.
"My eyes were wide open. A death threat! The real thing, holy smoke!" he said at the time.
Mr. Neish was motivated to join the convoy by what he felt was the ongoing persecution of about 1.7-million Palestinians in Gaza, where he first went in 2002. Supporters claim his ship was carrying 10,000 tonnes of medical, school and construction supplies.
"It's not that he has a death wish, or anything like that. Just that the principles of justice were more important to him than his personal comfort," Ms. Blunt said.
Mr. Neish is a widower whose wife passed away three years ago, and has one adult daughter, friends said. He was born and continues to live in Victoria. Friends say Mr. Neish was shot near his home a few years ago, an incident they say strengthened his resolve to fight injustice.
Supporters organized rallies Monday, urging Canada to condemn the attack. Ms. Hansen, who wrote a letter to the Israeli ambassador, urged supporters to do the same.
"If we dont express our concern, nothing will change."
Mr. Neish was travelling with Free Gaza, a pro-Palestinian aid group that provided the Challenger II to the convoy, which included four other groups.
Ramzi Kysia, a Free Gaza organizer based in Washington, said Monday that the Challenger II was believed to be the first of the flotilla to arrive at the Israeli port of Ashdod, early in the afternoon local time and between 9 and 10 a.m. EDT. Israeli troops are guarding the seized ships at the port. Free Gaza has no reports of injuries on board the Challenger II.
"The violence seems to have been limited to the Turkish ship, and possibly to one of the passenger ships, but not to the Challenger," Mr. Kysia said. "We're hopeful that nobody on the challenger was injured, including Kevin."
Mr. Neish was the only Canadian on the Challenger II, Mr. Kysia said. The group believes it won't get access to any of the people on the ship until all six in the flotilla have been processed by police.
"We're stilling waiting for all the ships to come into Ashdod. Once that happens, all the passengers will be processed and then we will be able to get our lawyers in to see them. Until that happens, our lawyers in Palestine aren't being given access to the passengers."
In an interview a week ago with a University of Victoria radio station, Mr. Neish said he and other activists were on the Greek island of Crete practising non-violent resistance techniques for an expected raid by Israeli soldiers.
"The leaders of the organization Free Gaza, they're treating it as serious and they're putting us through sort of the worst-case scenario of what to expect and how to react," he said. "I can't really say about much as to how we're going to react - well, basically it's a human shield, it's non-violently getting in the way. And they'll have to deal with me getting in the way non-violently."
He later said: "When they stop us they're going to have their hands full because they're going to have hundreds and hundreds of activists to deal with if they're going to take us all in."
Mr. Neish said he planned to stay on in Gaza to help fix water and sewer systems and work as a human shield.
The Foreign Affairs department and the Prime Minister's office have not returned phone messages about possible Canadians aboard the ships.
Ms. Blunt said Mr. Neish was the lone person from British Columbia on the ships, and that there are reports of one other unidentified Canadian who was on board.
Israel intercepted the six-ship Free Gaza Movement convoy early Monday as it tried to sail into the Gaza Strip, which has been blockaded for three years.
Editor's Note: An earlier online version of this article originally referred to Mr. Neish as Mr. Brunt and contained incorrect information about Mr. Neish's mother. This online version has been corrected.
Jill Mahoney