Canadians should have seen the video months ago
Canadians should have seen the video made by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau months ago. Even now, astoundingly, the RCMP won’t show us the whole thing. Commissioner Bob Paulson had better have a sound investigative or ethical reason for censoring the video, because Canadians have been treated like children long enough.
Paulson presented the video to a Parliamentary committee, and said that 18 seconds had been edited out, for “operational” reasons he would not disclose. Thirteen seconds at the beginning and five seconds at the end. Presumably, if the reasons truly are “operational,” we’ll be able to see the edited parts eventually. What we did see was not surprising, given what reporting has revealed so far and the hints dropped by government ministers. In the video, Zehaf-Bibeau says that his actions are “in retaliation for Afghanistan and because Harper wants to send his troops to Iraq.” He includes himself among the “mujahedeen of this world.” He rambles about Canadian society, although he was born and raised in this country: “It’s a disgrace you guys have forgotten God and have you let (sic) every indecency and things running your land. We don’t, we don’t go for this.”
In other words, vague Islamist boilerplate. This was what we had to wait four-and-a-half months to see?
The long wait, the dramatic buildup and the mysterious edits have all imbued this video with political significance it would not have had if the RCMP had simply shown it to Canadians in the days after the attack. This is convenient for the government, which has in the meantime got into the habit of using the Oct. 22 attack as a justification for its terrorism legislation, adding even more weight to this one man’s words.
As this editorial board said back in October, it is reasonable to call Zehaf-Bibeau a terrorist: he plainly targeted civilians and had an ideological motivation. We also said it is reasonable to point out that he had a history of addiction and mental illness, that there are reasons why this young man might have been particularly vulnerable to radicalization. Those facts do not mitigate one whit against the need to guard against terrorism, and they do not necessarily imply that Zehaf-Bibeau was unaware of what he was doing or unaware of right and wrong.
“Mentally ill” does not always, or even usually, equal “not criminally responsible.” But these facts do mitigate against the government’s insistence that terrorists are terrorists because they’re terrorists, that there is nothing to be gained from understanding how they think or how they’re recruited, that the way to prevent men like Zehaf-Bibeau from taking up arms is to broaden surveillance, disrupt their activities and criminalize expression.
In fact, the release of the video demonstrates the foolishness of keeping information from the public for the public’s ostensible protection. The proposed law against the promotion or advocacy of terrorism is misguided and undemocratic.
Parliamentarians and citizens needed to see this video to better understand how and why this man attacked us.
The banality and fundamental stupidity of evil needs to be continually uncovered and exposed to the light of day, so we know what we’re dealing with, and can counter it more effectively.
Keeping it secret only gives it a mystique it does not deserve.