2 Canadian girls stuck in Egypt under a travel ban requested by father in Canada

Shannon Elgazzar can see planes taking off from Cairo International Airport from her balcony.

The Canadian mother wishes she could board one of those flights home to Ontario with her daughters Ava and Noor, 10 and eight.

But she can't. 

When Elgazzar tried to leave Egypt in January 2025, she discovered there was a court-ordered travel ban preventing her children from leaving the country without both her and their father's permission. 

"I was in shock — there are no other words," said Elgazzar. "Why can't our girls come home to Canada? That's where their father resides."

Elgazzar's Egyptian-Canadian ex-husband, Mahmoud Elgazzar, obtained the travel ban in September 2024 after telling an Egyptian court that he was living in Egypt and needed the order to prevent his ex-wife from taking the children to Canada without his consent, according to court records. The application argued the move would deprive him of access to the children and his parental rights.

However, other government records, Toronto police emails and social media posts show Mahmoud Elgazzar was living in Canada when the travel ban was imposed — and that he has continued to live in the Greater Toronto Area since — even as his daughters remain unable to leave Egypt. 

CBC News reviewed an Egyptian movement certificate — an official document detailing a citizen's travel history — showing Mahmoud Elgazzar last left Egypt at the end of June 2024, months before the travel ban was placed on his daughters. 

Emails with Toronto police show he was employed as a police officer with the service from at least February 2025 until he was dismissed in June 2025. His Mississauga address appears on a lien for a vehicle he is leasing, and he has posted several Google reviews for businesses in the GTA since the travel ban was obtained.

Mahmoud Elgazzar declined an interview request. In a written statement to CBC News, he said he has been living in Canada since mid-2024 and chose to respond to legal proceedings his ex-wife initiated in Egypt, where the children are living. 

"The travel restrictions are court-ordered and do not prevent me from exercising my parental rights; rather, they ensure that decisions affecting the children occur within the established legal framework," he said in his statement.

"Any suggestion that I am independently preventing their return to Canada outside the court process is inaccurate."

Mahmoud Elgazzar did not respond to a follow up question asking why he has not given permission for the children to return to Canada, where he resides. He also did not provide documentation requested by CBC News to support his statement that "the Egyptian court orders concerning custody remain subject to formal legal review."

However, in his statement, he said: "At all times, I have acted in accordance with my legal rights and the best interests of my children."