Ottawa shooting: Zehaf-Bibeau used junk mail as temp licence plate
After reportedly being denied a licence plate for his car, Zehaf-Bibeau appears to have used junk mail instead
CBC News has learned Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the man who attacked Parliament Hill and killed a reservist on Wednesday, drove around for almost 24 hours with a piece of junk mail taped in the rear window of his car in place of a real temporary licence plate.
During that time, he used the car to travel to Mont-Tremblant, Que., a journey of more than 150 kilometres. He spent Tuesday night there with family and returned to Ottawa the next day — the day of the attack.
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Residents of the homeless shelter where Zehaf-Bibeau was staying in the days leading to his fatal attack say he had complained of car troubles and was looking to buy a used one.
The Ottawa Citizen reports he found one online and purchased it on Tuesday – the day before the attacks.
The report also says, however, that he was unable to obtain licence plates for the vehicle because he didn’t have proper identification.
Fake licence plate
A CBC News investigation has uncovered evidence indicating Zehaf-Bibeau faked a temporary licence plate by taping a piece of junk mail in the corner of the rear window.
Zehaf-Bibeau had used the car to drive to the National War Memorial on Wednesday and then drove it to to the street in front of Parliament Hill, where he abandoned it.
Photographs of the abandoned car show it had no licence plates. In the back window, that is instead what appears to be an order form for calendars.
Business next to licence bureau
On that form are the names of two employees of a business at 1800 Bank St in Ottawa – the same strip mall that houses one of the two Service Ontario branches Zehaf-Bibeau is reported to have gone to.
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A spokesperson for the Ontario government would not confirm if Zehaf-Bibeau had visited the Service Ontario location on Bank Street or another Ottawa location, citing privacy laws, but did confirm that “we had a loud individual at both locations on that day.”
One of the employees listed on the paper taped to the window says Zehaf-Bibeau was not a client of theirs. She said she would have remembered his uncommon name and his appearance.
When the piece of mail was described to the employee, she recalled receiving it and said it had been put out with the recycling that week.
Regardless of how or why Zehaf-Bibeau ended up with a piece of junk mail in place of a legitimate temporary licence plate, it appears that authorities in at least two municipalities and on two sets of provincial highways failed to notice anything amiss.
With files from Evan Dyer and Louise Elliott