The convert to Islam who fatally shot a Canadian soldier guarding that country's national war memorial Wednesday morning before attacking Parliament and being fatally shot by its sergeant-at-arms was a bureaucrat's son who displayed possible signs of mental illness and had a connection to a homegrown jihadist who has traveled to Syria, according to a published report.
The Globe and Mail newspaper, citing a friend of 32-year-old Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, reported that the gunman knew Hasibullah Yusufzai, a British Columbia resident who was charged by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in July with traveling to Syria with the intent of joining a deadly jihadist group. Yusufzai remains at large despite an international arrest warrant being issued for his capture.
Canadian authorities have not linked Zehaf-Bibeau to any known terrorists or terror groups, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper said investigators should learn in the coming days whether the gunman had any accomplices. It was not immediately clear whether Zehaf-Bibeau knew of Martin Couture-Rouleau, another Muslim convert from Quebec who killed one soldier and injured another in a hit-and-run attack Monday.
The paper had previously reported that Zehaf-Bibeau had been designated by authorities as a "high-risk traveller" and was unable to secure documents necessary to go abroad. The friend, a fellow convert to Islam named David Bathurst, told the paper that Zehaf-Bibeau had told him six weeks ago that he wanted to travel to Libya, where he had previously spent time, to study Arabic and learn more about Islam. Bathurst told the paper he urged his friend to make certain that he would only travel to the Middle East to study and "nothing else."
Zehaf-Bibeau may also have had a family connection to Libya. Official documents list Zehaf-Bibeau's father as a man named Bulgasem Zehaf, a Quebec businessman. The Globe and Mail cited this 2011 Washington Times report that quoted a Montreal man named as "Belgasem Zahef" who had taken part in the revolt against Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi. That man claimed that he had traveled from Canada to join the anti-Qaddafi rebels and had been detained for a month at an oil terminal, where he had witnessed scenes of torture.
Zehaf-Bibeau's mother is Susan Bibeau, the deputy chairperson of a division of Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board. Zehaf and Bibeau divorced in 1999, according to the Globe and Mail.
Bathurst told the paper Zehaf-Bibeau had moved to British Columbia to find work as a miner and laborer before the two met in a suburban Vancouver mosque approximately three years ago. Bathurst said that his friend displayed signs of mental instability that attracted the attention of the mosque's elders.
"We were having a conversation in a kitchen, and I don’t know how he worded it: He said the devil is after him," Bathurst said in a Globe and Mail interview. He said his friend frequently talked about the presence of "Shaytan" in the world – an Arabic term for devils and demons. "I think he must have been mentally ill." Bathurst added that elders at the mosque eventually asked Zehaf-Bibeau to stop attending prayers due to his "erratic" behavior, though he did not describe any specific incidents.
Zehaf-Bibeau was also in trouble with the law in British Columbia, after racking up a long criminal record in Quebec since the early 2000s for crimes as varied as drug possession, credit card forgery, and robbery. He was also charged with robbery in Vancouver in 2011, but eventually was sentenced to one day in jail after pleading guilty to uttering a threat. His lawyer at the time, Brian Anderson described the threat as "something fairly minor and fairly bizarre." Anderson added that Zehaf-Bibeau was given pretrial psychiatric assessment and found fit.
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