As more information emerges, the more it becomes clear that the gunfire on Parliament Hill on Wednesday was as much about mental illness and addiction as it was terrorism.
That the attack was shocking and frightening is not in doubt. Powerful symbols of our nationhood were desecrated by the killing of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial and the invasion of Parliament鈥檚 Centre Block by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who died in the resulting exchange of gunfire. These acts wounded the country鈥檚 heart and sparked fear.
But this was not sa国际传媒鈥檚 9/11. This was not ISIS wreaking revenge on sa国际传媒 for participating in the Middle East conflict. This was the terrible act of an unstable man who had unsuccessfully sought help in previous encounters with the law.
We shouldn鈥檛 dismiss the link to ISIS. In the days before the Ottawa attack, Zehaf-Bibeau, a convert to Islam, had been reading the rantings of a jihadist who urged attacks on sa国际传媒. The extremist cause has an appeal to unstable people seeking a way to focus their anger.
Intelligence agencies are correct in tracking all contacts with terrorist groups and in maintaining surveillance of people who seem sympathetic to such a cause. Whether a zeal for terrorism comes from mental instability or a sincere commitment, the outcome is equally terrible.
Zehaf-Bibeau struggled for years with drug addiction. In December 2011, he entered a Vancouver fast-food restaurant with a sharpened stick and demanded money. The clerk called the police while Zehaf-Bibeau went outside and sat down to wait for the officers.
He told the judge he wanted to be imprisoned so he could get treatment for his cocaine addiction. He was detained until the following February, when he pleaded guilty to uttering threats. He was sentenced to time served and released.
In that court appearance, it was learned that in December 2011, he told the Burnaby RCMP he had committed an armed robbery in Quebec 10 years before. No record of such a robbery was found.
Zehaf-Bibeau was detained under the Mental Health Act and taken to the hospital, where staff said he didn鈥檛 have a mental illness. He was turned away from a detox centre because he wasn鈥檛 intoxicated. His attempted robbery of the restaurant took place shortly after that.
He was kicked out of a Burnaby mosque about a year ago for drug use and bizarre behaviour, according to the Vancouver Sun.
Drug abuse apparently also figures in the case of John Nuttall and Amanda Korody, who will go to trial in January on charges that they placed three pressure-cooker bombs outside the sa国际传媒 legislature with the idea of setting them off during sa国际传媒 Day celebrations in 2013. (Police had learned of the plot and ensured the devices wouldn鈥檛 work.)
Like Zehaf-Bibeau, Nuttall and Korody had struggled with drugs and were converts to Islam, and like Zehaf-Bibeau, they were reportedly kicked out of a mosque for their behaviour.
These are not portraits of well-trained terrorists. Rather, they are pitiful pictures of losers desperate to cling to something. That makes them no less dangerous, nor should their acts of violence be regarded with leniency.
Following the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, Justin Trudeau was derided for suggesting we should seek to understand the root causes of terrorism. He wasn鈥檛 particularly insightful, but he wasn鈥檛 wrong 鈥� we can鈥檛 successfully combat something we don鈥檛 understand.
Zehaf-Bibeau is dead. We鈥檒l never fully understand his motives. But we do know he sought help and couldn鈥檛 find it.
This week鈥檚 attacks in Ottawa and Quebec will likely result in more resources being put into security. Some of those resources should be directed toward treating mental illness and addictions, for they, too, threaten our security.
