Canadian parliament shooter ‘made video’ before attack

[SoleSurvivor]

Canadian parliament shooter ‘made video’ before attack

Man who stormed Canada's seat of government driven by ideology: police

PUBLISHED : Monday, 27 October, 2014, 10:06pm
UPDATED : Monday, 27 October, 2014, 10:06pm

Reuters in Toronto

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau made a video of himself before he attacked the Canadian parliament building last week. Photo: AP

The man who killed a Canadian soldier and attacked the country's parliament building last week made a video of himself beforehand, evidence he was driven by ideological and political motives, police said.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Sunday that they were conducting a detailed analysis of the video made by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau and could not release it for now.

Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, stormed into the Parliament building with a rifle last Wednesday after shooting and killing Corporal Nathan Cirillo at a monument to Canada's war dead. Zehaf-Bibeau was shot dead in the building.

The federal police force said it believed a knife carried by Zehaf-Bibeau was retrieved from his aunt's property, but added it was still looking into the origin of the gun he used.

"It is an old and uncommon gun. We suspect that he could have similarly hidden the gun on the property but our inquiries continue," the police said.

The police also said Zehaf-Bibeau had worked in Alberta's oil fields and used the money he made to finance his activities in the days leading up to the attack. He had been living in an Ottawa homeless shelter just before the shooting.

The police are investigating Zehaf-Bibeau's interactions with numerous people in the days before the attack to find out whether these could have contributed to or facilitated his crime.

Security in normally relaxed Canada has been tighter in the days since the shooting. Two days earlier another man described by police as radicalised drove over two soldiers in Quebec with a car, killing one.

The attacker, 25-year-old Martin Rouleau, was shot and killed by police.

The attacks, which police said were the work of Canadian citizens who were recent converts to Islam, came the same week as the government sent additional jet fighters to the Middle East to take part in air strikes against Islamic State militants.

Canadian officials vowed to keep up their involvement in the military campaign despite the attacks and were planning to reopen the Parliament building to the public yesterday, though they said they would begin locking the doors overnight.

Firemen salute from the top of their truck as residents of Port Hope stand below them with flags on a bridge to honour Corporal Nathan Cirillo as the motorcade and hearse carrying his body passes along Highway 401, the nation's "Highway of Heroes", enroute to Hamilton, Ontario. Photo: Reuters

Top Canadian security officials were due to testify yesterday before a parliamentary committee about threats to the nation.

The head of the mounted police and a senior official at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service will face tough questions from a Senate committee about how Zehaf-Bibeau and Rouleau were able to kill two soldiers on Canadian soil.

The incidents have prompted Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative colleagues to scramble to strengthen anti-terrorism legislation. The attacks also sparked questions about Canada's culture of openness that allowed anyone to walk freely into the Ottawa Parliament building.

The mother of Zehaf-Bibeau denied in a letter to the Canadian news agency Postmedia a claim by the mounted police that she had told them her son had intended to travel to Syria, a hotbed of militant activity.

Her son, who came to Ottawa from Vancouver seeking a passport, had wanted to travel to Saudi Arabia to study the Koran, Susan Bibeau said in the letter.

The nation is preparing for two funerals, with Ottawa victim Cirillo to be laid to rest in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, today. A funeral for 53-year-old Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent was set for Saturday, in Quebec.