Quebec City mosque shooter not Islamophobic, showing remorse: defence expert

Alexandre Bissonnette may have killed six Muslims in a Quebec City mosque last year, but his lawyers pleaded Wednesday that he was not Islamophobic and could benefit from psychiatric help.

Bissonnette's lawyers have been attempting to demonstrate the 28-year-old is showing remorse for his actions and should be eligible for parole after 25 years. 

Earlier this week, they called forensic psychiatrist Marie-Frédérique Allard to the stand. Under cross-examination Wednesday by the Crown, Allard said Bissonnette was focused more on the act of killing than on any particular ideology. 

"Hatred for immigrants or Muslims was not something he nurtured over a long period," Allard testified. 

Crown prosecutor François Godin challenged her conclusions, asking Allard how killing Muslims inside a mosque wasn't "enough" to be considered an act of Islamophobia.

"What more could he have done to be Islamophobic? Written a song about it?" Godin asked Allard sarcastically.

According to Allard, Bissonnette could not shake his desire to carry out a mass killing and planned to commit suicide afterward.

She said Bissonnette rationalized his crime by thinking killing Muslims would be "more acceptable;" based on a "deeply flawed" prejudice he believed he would likely be killing terrorists.

"I was able to convince myself they were all fanatics," Bissonnette was quoted as saying in Allard's report.

Inmates reports disturbing conversation

The Crown used its cross-examination to discredit the picture being painted by the defence of Bissonnette as an anxious, fragile person who could benefit from long-term psychological support.

Godin shocked the courtroom when he read a statement from one of Bissonnette's fellow inmates. In the statement, the inmate said he was watching television with Bissonnette around the time of the anniversary of the shooting. 

A news item appeared featuring Aymen Derbali, who was the object of a fundraising campaign after he was paralyzed from the chest down during the mosque attack. Bissonnette shot him seven times.

At the sight of Derbali on the screen, Bissonnette cursed and said "I can't believe that after seven bullets he didn't die," according to the inmate's statement. 

One man seated in the audience started speaking Arabic aloud, visibly shocked by the statement. 

Quebec Superior Court Justice François Huot asked the audience to quiet down. He then told Godin to read the inmate's statement a second time.

"His family will get a house and my family will get nothing," the inmate reported Bissonnette saying. Bissonnette was apparently referring to the fundraising campaign that raised $400,000 to provide Derbali a wheelchair-adapted home.

Huot later ruled that he would not consider the statement as evidence, given the inmate did not himself testify.

Bissonnette impassive

Inside the prisoner's box, Bissonnette, dressed in a black sweatshirt, shook his head slowly at the mention of this conversation.

He has remained impassive for much of the trial, reacting only at mention of his family or allegations he is Islamophobic.

The judge made note of this behaviour Wednesday, saying that Bissonnette was showing little emotion despite poignant, and sometimes gruesome testimony.

"Everyone was very shaken by what we were hearing," Huot said, adding it was difficult to see a progression in Bissonnette's empathy for others.

Allard responded that Bissonnette "perhaps hasn't made huge steps, but he is capable of [empathy]."

The psychiatrist said Bissonnette had shown signs of remorse since going on his shooting rampage, which is in line with the testimony provided by two other expert witnesses this week.

Empathy for his own family

Huot also noted the only time Bissonnette openly wept, with the exception of the testimony of a 14-year-old daughter of one of the victims, was whenever his parents were mentioned.

"Then the reaction was immediate, the faucets were running," he said.

Allard admitted that Bissonnette's immediate concern was for his own family, but that he was capable of thinking of others.

She also said that Bissonnette admitted he mimicked signs of mental distress in the hours and weeks following his arrest, because he didn't want his parents to think poorly of him.

The 28-year-old often has looked for them in the audience, giving them faint nods and smiles over the past three weeks of hearings.

Bissonnette pleaded guilty in March to six counts of first-degree murder, and six counts of attempted murder. He will be back in court tomorrow morning after meeting with the Crown's psychiatric expert, who could testify on Thursday.