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The mother of Michael Zehaf Bibeau, who shot down a soldier in Ottawa recently, claims that her son’s actions were in despair and expressed doubt over his radicalization. Zehaf-Bibeau killed Corporal Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial before being killed in a gunfight with Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and security personnel at the Parliament Building.
According to Postmedia News, Susan Bibeau in a letter wrote that that she can’t understand what drove Michael to the senseless violence and feels ashamed for his actions. She also says that her son was an “unhappy person at odds with the world” and, in his final days, was mentally unbalanced.
Bibeau also says that her son had wanted to go to Saudi Arabia and study the Qu’ran. She says Michael was angered when federal officials did not grant him his passport; she felt that her son would be happier in the Islamic country.
“He felt cornered, unable to stay in the life he was in, unable to move on to the next one he wanted to go to”, Bibeau wrote.
She disputes the RCMP’s suggestion that Zehaf Bibeau wanted his passport to fight in Syria.
She also wrote that she did not believe her son was a member of an organization or acted “on behalf of some grand ideology or for a political motive”, and believed that “he acted in despair”.
However, her comments have not persuaded the Canadian Prime Minister’s office to soften his tone towards Zehaf Bibeau.
“This was a terrorist attack. He attacked two Canadian institutions – the soldiers standing guard at the War Memorial, and Parliament – had espoused extremist ideology, was, as the police have indicated, radicalized”, Jason MacDonald, a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s office told The Canadian Press.