Mental breakdown not key factor in Parliament Hill shooting, RCMP boss says
The Canadian Press | Posted: January 15, 2016 8:23 PM | Last Updated: January 15, 2016
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau would have had tough time pleading insanity, says top Mountie
Canada's top Mountie says the gunman who stormed Parliament Hill in 2014 would have had a difficult time pleading insanity had he lived to face charges.
But RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson acknowledges Michael Zehaf-Bibeau could have benefited from mental-health counselling before the rampage that saw him die in a hail of bullets.
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A rifle-toting Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, raced into Parliament's Centre Block in October 2014 after fatally killing Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, an honour guard at the nearby National War Memorial.
Shortly before his attack, the gunman made a video in which he cited retaliation for Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq as his motivation.
Paulson told a Commons committee last year that the Mounties considered Zehaf-Bibeau a terrorist, and that he would have been charged with terrorism offences under the Criminal Code had he survived.
The commissioner told a security conference Friday that Zehaf-Bibeau might have then blamed his actions on mental illness — but Paulson doesn't believe such a breakdown was the main factor.