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“He has been interviewed tens of times by CSIS (starting well before 11 September 2001), often for hours at a time,” and people who arrive in the country are regularly asked about him and whether they plan to attend his prayers; they are made to feel as though he is dangerous,” the committee’s report said.

Mr. Sbeiti “began having problems at airports” and complained about delays getting his boarding passes and being “asked to stand aside and wait while others were processed,” it said. “Eventually, he found out that he had been placed on the no fly list in the United States and that this was affecting him even when he was flying in Canada.”

When he tried to enter the United States, he was “arrested, handcuffed and put in a cell for six or seven hours” before being sent back to Canada, it said. “Next he was told by his bank that Canadian authorities wanted to make inquiries into his finances.”

‘He has been interviewed tens of times by CSIS (starting well before 11 September 2001), often for hours at a time’

His “Security Case History Sheet” at Passport Canada shows that in 2007 his passport was damaged when he tried to remove “a sticker.” He said it had happened in Saudi Arabia and denied he had attempted to remove a visa from his passport, which was later seized at Montreal’s Trudeau airport on the grounds it had been altered.

Two years later, on Aug. 31, 2009, the RCMP INSET in Montreal asked the passport office to “flag” Mr. Sbeiti since he was “of interest” to the section. The passport he used at that time had several entry and exit stamps from Lebanon, as well as an Iranian visa and indicates he had travelled to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.