Richard Moushian

By Beryl Wajsman, Editor
The Suburban

For NDG resident Richard Moushian, his wife Sandy and their young daughter it was supposed to be a vacation to his father’s homeland, Lebanon. A visit to where his father was raised and the places he lived. A visit to where the substantial Armenian Orthodox community in Lebanon lives now and the historical places where it had built an important and significant presence and contribution to that country.

It was not to be. For this family — all Canadian born — a nightmare started August 1, the day of their arrival at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport.The young family approached the customs inspectors at the airport to present their Canadian passports. That’s where the problems began. In 2018 the family had made a tour of the holy sites in Israel. Among them Jerusalem’s ancient Armenian Quarter and Bethlehem. In Bethlehem, tiny stamps were placed by security on the outside of passports. The stamps have Hebrew letters. The stamps were to be removed once one left Bethlehem. Sandy forgot to remove hers.

At Beirut airport, the customs guard noticed the Hebrew letter on Sandy’s passport stamp after having stamped both their passports. Lebanon, Syria, Libya and Algeria are among the few Middle East countries that still do not allow entry to anyone with evidence in their passports of visits to Israel. Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Tunisia, Morocco and several others have no such restrictions.

Because Richard told the inspector that his father was raised in Lebanon, he was told that Lebanon had authority over him and seized his passport and cellphone to investigate what Richard’s involvement with Israel was and was taken for questioning. Though the stamp was on Sandy’s passport, she was allowed to keep it and her cellphone because she had no familial connection to Lebanon.

The family was allowed to proceed to their hotel but Richard was ordered to appear before a tribunal at the General Security Building on Tuesday August 12. Panic understandably set in. This was Richard’s vacation and his employer is a major financial institution. They tried to contact the Canadian Embassy and were told that “Canada does not interfere with internal legal matters of foreign countries.” The Embassy offered no solutions but that the family should “go through the the process and keep them informed and hire a lawyer.”

Several days later, Sandy contacted The Suburban by Instagram messenger. She wrote that the family “were avid readers of The Suburban.”

She said she “wanted to highlight an issue that may concern your readers”. We contacted her on her What’s App number and she recounted the events described above and asked for help. She also explained that their friends in Montreal had attempted to contact their MP Anna Gainey but received no reply. They also tried Global Affairs and received no help there either.

The family did hire a lawyer and he told them that Richard indeed was to appear in the General Security Office before Administrative Judge Fadi Akiki on the morning of August 12. In speaking with Richard and Sandy, The Suburban told them what we planned to do and with whom and to be very careful with whom they discussed their situation while in Beirut.

The Suburban then started our own investigation. We confirmed that indeed the policy of our Embassies is not to interfere in legal matters. It obviously raised the question of what aid can they offer to Canadian citizens. We were given the same answer when we spoke to Consular Services at Global Affairs in Ottawa. Consular Services is the emergency office all Canadians travelling abroad are supposed to count on 24/7.

We then started to call diplomatic, legal and intelligence personnel we had contact with in a variety of countries. The Suburban kept in constant contact with the Moushians and asked them if there was any progress with the Embassy. They answered that they had received two calls from it astoundingly asking them if they were back in Montreal.

Finally, after some five days of effort, The Suburban made the breakthrough that helped the Moushians get back to Montreal. The Israeli Consul-General in Montreal Amb. Paul Hirschson, who was days away from ending his tour here, suggested we call Laval-Les Îles MP Fayçal El-Khoury. Mr. El-Khoury immediately leapt into action, getting his executive assistant on the line with us right away. He said he knew precisely who to call because a family member of his had gone through the same experience after visiting Israel and then trying to enter Lebanon several years later.

The Laval MP graciously took our call on a Sunday, the Sunday two days before Richard was to appear at the General Security Court. By Monday The Suburban heard back from Mr. El-Khoury that though Richard would have to go to that Security Office to retrieve his passport and phone, there would be no hearing in front of Judge Akiki.

Indeed that is the way it transpired except for one hitch. When Richard arrived on Tuesday morning August 12, a Lieutenant noticed pictures of Jerry Seinfeld in Israel on Richard’s phone. The officer had no idea who he was and grilled Richard for hours on whether this was an Israeli operative and what Richard had to do with him. After four hours, the officer understood who Seinfeld was and returned Richard’s passport and cellphone.

The family called The Suburban after to tell us they were booked to leave Beirut on Turkish Airways via Istanbul to Montreal. We advised them not to discuss the incident even amongst themselves while on the plane and to contact us once they had arrived in Montreal. That is the picture accompanying this story.

We leave the epilogue to this adventure to Richard’s and Sandy’s words. Richard wrote me, “I’m ready to give you the story mainly as a public service. My embassy left me to rot like a stray dog in the third world. You don’t know me from Paul and you helped 100x more than anyone! For that I cannot be more grateful.” Sandy wrote, “Thank you for your support and being someone our family could lean on during this whole ordeal.” n