Justin Ling, a freelance journalist in Ottawa, reported that Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the suspected shooter in Wednesday’s attack in Ottawa, was being monitored by the Canadian government as individual who wanted to fight for ISIS on Thursday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on MSNBC.
Bibeau “was on a terror watch list. He was one of 90 individuals who were targeted by our Canadian spy agency as being those who are looking to go abroad to the so-called Islamic state and fight for ISIS,” Ling reported.
Ling added “this guy’s past is a little more checkered. We have a couple court documents that suggest that he was arrested for various drug possession charges as well as a small robbery that occurred in Vancouver while he was living in a small rooming house in a very low income district. So, we don’t know much about his past. His family is actually quite well off. His mother is a senior civil servant in the Canadian government dealing with immigration issues.”
He concluded that Bibeau’s personal life was “a very interesting story here and one that appears to be equally involved in his past and possible mental illness as it does with his conversion to a radical form of Islam.”
Ling also stated that the Canadian government would strengthen anti-terror legislation, saying “we heard minsters from this government promising there will be changes in the coming days. We also heard the promise of a new anti-terror legislation. Terror legislation that would allow them to preventatively arrest those they believe who could be an imminent threat to Canada.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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