Should federal government push Israel to release former MP snagged when ship tries to break Gaza blockade?

Just what are the Canadian government's obligations towards John Manly, the former New Democrat MP now sitting in an Israel jail cell after challenging the countries naval blockade of Gaza?

Manly, who turns 80 later this month, was among a group of 30 people including European parliamentarians who were detained when the Israel navy bordered the ship Estelle, attempting to run the blockade last weekend to deliver school, medical and building supplies.

Israel has blocked any such voyages, with deadly results two years ago, because they fear arms and munitions could be smuggled into Gaza, which is governed by the the labelled terrorist group Hamas.

The Globe and Mail reports Manly still languishes in custody while other foreigners on the ship have been freed following a diplomatic push from their governments.

"Those who were released were released due to political pressure," Ehab Lotayef, whose organization Canadian Boat to Gaza helped organize Manly's involvement, told the Globe. "The Greek ambassador and the Spanish embassy staff were there from the very beginning on a political level rather than on a consular level and they put on enormous pressure. They both had members of parliament on the Estelle and they got their people out right away."

[ Related: Israeli navy takes control of activist boat bound for Gaza, Canadian in custody ]

There's been no similar pressure from Canadian officials, he said.

And there shouldn't be, National Post columnist Kelly McParland wrote Monday.

McParland reproduced a news release from Manly's family demanding the Conservative government contact Israeli officials to have him put on the first available flight back to Canada.

Meanwhile Ottawa should ensure Manly, a former United Church minister, is put in touch with his family and that he not be made to sign a document admitting he entered Israel illegally. The vessel was boarded in international waters, son Paul Manly says in the release, and was headed for Gaza, not Israel.

"If Canada and Israel are the close allies that the prime minister has said they are, then he should be able to secure my father release with one quick phone call," Paul Manly wrote.

But McParland was unsympathetic at John Manly's apparent support for a mission to prop up a regime in Gaza that Human Rights Watch found to run the territory through a mix of fear, torture and repression, as McPharland recalls.

"His family say they were helpless to keep him from going, but now insist it's Ottawa's responsibility to somehow force the Israeli government to release him," he wrote.

"His son Paul acknowledges his father is being treated fine and is in good health, yet is mystified that not a single MP has spoken out in his defence."

NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar told the Globe his party was concerned about Manly. Before the Israelis had boarded the ship the NDP had urged both sides to show restraint, and the party had even contacted the Canadian government to confirm that consular services would be available should anything happen.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs told the Globe via email Sunday that Canadian consular officials were monitoring the situation closely and had been in contact with Manly.

The Post reported Israel's Interior Ministry saying the detainees would be sent home within 72 hours. That was the case with three Canadians captured aboard a ship that was part of a blockade-running flotilla in June 2010, when nine activists were killed in a clash with Israel commandos.

Manly reportedly has health problems that require daily medication. Israel has the best medical facilities in the region, McParland said, so Manly "is in a position to receive far better treatment and care than if he'd actually made it to Gaza."

It sounds like Manly is getting the kind of official attention any Canadian caught in similar circumstances is entitled to receive. It's unlikely he's going to get any more help, at least publicly. As McParland pointed out, even his old NDP colleagues are lukewarm.

"Perhaps because they realize that foolish people in a free country have the right to do foolish things, and it's not Ottawa's job to save them from their own foolishness."