Windsor man arrested on terrorism peace bond
Mounties fear he will leave country again
WINDSOR• The guard looked apologetic as he emerged from the cells at the South West Detention Centre to explain that, although Mohammed El Shaer had initially agreed to talk to a reporter, he had changed his mind at the last moment.
The interview was scrubbed and the questions were left unanswered— questions about El Shaer’s relationship with a notorious Canadian fighter with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighter, his repeated journeys to the Middle East and his apparent proficiency with false travel documents. Thursday, the RCMP confirmed that, days after completing a prison sentence for his unconventional travels, the 28- yearold Canadian had been arrested again on a terrorism peace bond.
Court documents said this was because of RCMP concerns he would l eave Canada to “participate in the activity of a terrorist group.”
He had been released last Friday on a $ 5,000 bond and required to wear an ankle bracelet.
He was also banned from airports.
“We certainly don’t think it was necessary to have employed extraordinary powers while the client is on probation in the first place,” said his lawyer, Anser Farooq.
He said it was “absurd” to arrest El Shaer at his Windsor home when he had been out of prison for four days without violating his parole conditions.
It was t he l atest in a string of arrests by RCMP national security investigators using a section of the law that allows courts to impose conditions on suspects in cases where police have evidence they “may” engage in terrorist activities.
Six other terrorism peace bonds are before the courts — three each in Ontario and Quebec.
Only one is in effect, against Aaron Driver, a Winnipeg ISIL supporter. Two others recently expired and a third was withdrawn.
El Shaer has never been charged with any terrorism offences, but he was known to U. S. authorities as early as 2013.
On July 2 that year he tried to enter Michigan at the Ambassador Bridge but was turned back for “undisclosed national security reasons,” a Crown prosecutor told the Ontario court.
Nonetheless, he travelled to the Middle East three times — once with a known jihadist fighter, and twice despite not possessing a valid passport and being the subject of court orders banning him from leaving Ontario.
“What do you want me to say,” he told the National Post during his latest trip to Turkey in June 2015. “I guess we know who got the last laugh. Allah’s plan has beaten your fragile nation’s plan. May Allah guide you to the truth or destroy you.”
A self- employed business administration and marketing graduate, El Shaer had tried to make a living setting up company websites. He lived, most recently, in a subsidized housing complex in downtown Windsor.
Four months after being turned away at the U. S. border, he flew to Paris via Iceland with Ahmad Waseem, a violent extremist who had returned home to Windsor to recover from an injury sustained fighting in Syria. From Paris, Waseem went to Turkey and crossed back into Syria.
Six weeks later, El Shaer told Canadian officials his passport had been damaged and received an emergency travel document. Back in Windsor, the Palestinian-Canadian attended a meeti ng organized by a l ocal Muslim association to address the growing radicalization problem and challenged the guest speaker.
Police later arrested him for giving false information on a Citizenship and Immigration Canada form he had filled out in Turkey. But after he was released on bail, he slipped away, turning up at the Canadian mission in Sudan on Sept. 16 to get another emergency travel document.
Unable to locate him, his lawyer dropped him as a client. “I think he went out of the country and is unable to fly back,” his new lawyer told a judge when El- Shaer failed to show up for a Nov. 5 court appearance. “He may be on a no-fly list.”
That night, he was arrested at Toronto’s Pearson airport after disembarking from a flight from Iceland. A judge sentenced him to 24 days for violating bail conditions that banned him from leaving Ontario and for giving false information when he applied for a replacement passport in Turkey.
“I made a mistake and I apologize for that,” he told the judge. “It won’t happen again.”
But it did. Released from prison on Jan. 7, 2015 — but still barred from l eaving Ontario or applying for a passport — El Shaer started planning his departure.
Using a Syrian passport in the name of Mohd Nour Hussan Moussa, he bought a plane ticket to Jordan.
A s ecurity camera at Pearson caught him boarding the plane with his wife and sons.
During a stopover in Istanbul they all got off and missed the final leg.
Police searched the family’s housing unit on Feb. 23 and found passport photos of El Shaer, his expired Canadian passport with the photo removed, clear plastic lamination sheets, glue and “assorted travel documents,” the prosecutor said.
“Canadian Muslims guess which ‘ High Risk Traveller’ made it into Sham (Syria)?” Waseem, who had by then joined ISIL, tweeted March 2. “So what’s ur excuse. #Hijra #IS.”
A photo of Waseem with El Shaer accompanied the post.
“The photograph is believed to be a photograph taken of Waseem and Mr. El Shaer when they travelled together to Syria in November 2013,” Crown prosecutor Eric Costaris later told the court.
“Canada is home to me, my family,” El Shaer said in emails to a Post reporter, “but when you are constantly harassed by government officials it makes life a little bit difficult being followed around everywhere and your name in the media constantly doesn’t make it easy to land your dream job.”
El Shaer turned up at the Canadian Embassy in Istanbul on Aug. 6 and said “he needed a passport to get back to Canada,” the prosecutor said.
Meanwhile, his wife returned to Toronto on Sept. 29 and told CBSA officers she “travelled to Turkey because she loves the country and wanted to learn more about the makeup industry.”
The following week, on Oct. 9, 2015, El Shaer landed in Calgary and was re- arrested. He pleaded guilty to three charges and was sentenced to one year.
“You, sir, are a fraud,” Justice Douglas Phillips said. “To be sure, you are a criminal. You, sir, have no regard nor any respect for Canadian law.”
“I apologize for my actions,” he told the judge.
His lawyer, Farooq, said El Shaer intended to apply to graduate schools in Windsor and Toronto. He had been “foolish” but now only wanted to build a future for his family in Canada, Farooq said.
“He has no plans of travelling.”