Meet the man looking after the abandoned Syrian embassy for more than a decade

Issa Khoury doesn't know precisely how many keys he holds for the Syrian embassy building in downtown Ottawa; he's never counted. But it's a lot.

"Offices, drawers, filing cabinets, the cars" — all were left behind or sold in the wake of a diplomatic fraying whose effects are still being felt 10 years on, he told Radio-Canada.

In 2012, Canada joined its allies in a co-ordinated expulsion of Syrian diplomats as the regime of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad engaged in brutal violence against its own people.

Operations inside the Syrian embassy ceased, but Khoury, now 74, says he was asked by Bashar Akbik, Syria's chargé d'affaires, to keep checking in on the Queen Anne Revival-style building.

During the last decade, the provincial heritage building has experienced interior flooding, a changed main roof due to leaking and break-ins by squirrels, pigeons and humans, Khoury said. The heat has also been turned off, he added.

But Khoury said he remains hopeful the embassy at the corner of Somerset and Cartier streets, two blocks south of City Hall, can one day reopen.

"It's a very solid building … I'm going to [take care of it] it as long as it takes."

Embassy offered key services

Khoury has lived in the Ottawa area for most of his life and co-founded the Syrian Arab Association of Canada.

He said the embassy provided vital services to Syrians living in Canada, including help with passports and dual citizenships. Now people seek help from the honorary consulate for Syria in British Columbia, he said.

"The consulate will send [a person's issues] to New York, and New York will send it to Damascus. It takes about four, three months to finish a small issue that used to be done in three hours here in the embassy," Khoury said.

Radio Canada has reached out to the honorary consulate in B.C. for comment.

The association's former president, Mounir Louis, said it "breaks your heart" to see the embassy of his country of origin shuttered but that it will take time for the situation to change.

The ball is in Syria's court, according to Global Affairs Canada. A department spokesperson said via email that Canada's position on normalizing relations with the Syrian regime has not changed and there will be "no re-engagement" without a lasting political solution to the conflict.

"Canada continues to support a political settlement to the conflict that is inclusive and Syrian-led ... and includes a call to protect the rights of all Syrians," they said. "Lasting peace will only be possible if it includes accountability for the crimes and terrible injustices inflicted on Syrians by the regime."

Over 40 complaints about building

With the embassy's operations in limbo, the state of the property and the building's exterior has caused concern.

The City of Ottawa said in an email it's received over 40 complaints since 2012, including some about debris and litter, tall grass and weeds. More recently in June 2022, concerns were raised about "several deficiencies including damage to heritage features," the city said.

David Flemming, the chair of Heritage Ottawa's advocacy committee, said his organization wants to see the building preserved.

According to a letter the group sent the federal government in 2013, the building went up in 1901, served as both a convent and the home of a Supreme Court justice, and is "an excellent example of the architecture of its time."

"The minimum thing that I would like to see done is covering the windows if they're broken and making sure that it's weathertight," Flemming told CBC, adding that it's "very frustrating" the city is limited in what it can do.

In its statement, the city said property standards officers proactively monitor vacant heritage properties on a semi-annual basis and issue orders for condemned buildings, graffiti removal, repairs, restoration or property maintenance as needed.

But the city "does not have jurisdiction and is unable to enforce compliance with respect to designated diplomatic properties," it added.

Despite 10 years of no activity within the building, Syria remains responsible for the real estate's upkeep, Global Affairs Canada said.

Reopening would be 'costly' 

Khoury said he checks on the building about every month or so and that local Syrians have helped clean up the property.

Usually it's the Syrian government that pays for upkeep, Khoury said.

"Even with all the maintenance, when there is a building you don't live in, and nobody is using it, no matter what you do, things are gonna happen in it."

Should the embassy ever reopen, restoring it to what it once was — with its mahogany walls and furniture imported from Syria — will be "costly," Khoury said.

Still, he believes it's worth it.

"It's a matter of committing to a cause that [needed] to be committed to," Khoury said. "We are proud Canadians, but also we are proud Syrians."