The suspect in the shooting at the Quebec mosque was under the influence of alcohol and antidepressants at the time of the attack. If the authorities had known of his this, he would have been denied a permit for possession of a restricted weapon or had his permit revoked.
When arrested, Alexandre Bissonnette was in possession of a duly registered 9-mm pistol. This is the first time that a legally acquired weapon has been used in the province for such carnage.
To obtain a permit, applicants like this 27-yr old have to go through a comprehensive audit process under the Act. He had to meet with a police officer, provide two references and give information about his mental health and behaviour.
“Those identified as references for applicants are all systematically contacted”, explained Martine Asselin, spokesman for the Quebec provincial police, without explaining what happened in the Bissonnette case. Spouses or ex-spouses are also always contacted.
People close to the applicant are questioned
This process ensures that people can speak freely about the applicant without them there, says Lieutenant Asselin. References are specifically asked if they have concerns about the State of mind of the applicant, on his actions or the people he hangs around with.
Every applicant must fill out a form, disclosing any criminal record, alcohol problems, depression and/or suicidal thoughts. An applicant may be required to produce his medical records. ‘If he refuses, the permit will not be issued’, according to Lieutenant Asselin.
The applicant must also disclose if he has been involved in any incidents, even if no charges were laid, even something as trivial as an argument with neighbors. Such incidents will be come to light anyway during the audits conducted with the Québec Police Information Centre. The SQ posts its check-ups on social media when the slightest concern appears in a folder, or if the request is for an assault rifle. Sources disclose that when Bissonnette applied for a permit for a restricted weapon barely two years ago, among the people contacted nobody, including his father, expressed concerns. Neither did any of these people subsequently report to authorities the deterioration of his condition, even though he was being treated for anxiety and had developed alcohol problems, according to our information.
The same thing happened with his fellow shooting club members, who said they found Bissonnette “bizarre”, without thinking that perhaps they should alert the police.
Many are unaware that the SQ offers a hot line, which allows concerned people to report any concerns about firearms permit holders, by calling 1 800 731 – 4000.
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Quebec City mosque shooter considered mall shooting 2 months earlier — (Global News)
By Raquel Fletcher Global News
Posted April 23, 2018 7:33 pm
A former teacher of Alexandre Bissonnette said other students would laugh at him, hit him and throw him against the wall on a daily basis. THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE/Mathieu Belanger – POOL
The Quebec City mosque shooter considered shooting up the largest shopping centre in the city two months before the opening fire on Muslim worshippers, according to testimony by a forensic psychologist called to testify by the defence during sentencing arguments for Alexandre Bissonnette.
Bissonnette pleaded guilty to six counts of first-degree murder and another six counts of attempted murder for the shooting that happened after evening prayers on Jan. 29, 2017.
Marc-André Lamontagne testified that Bissonnette told him he had the impression that he “had been trapped” by a demon.
On Nov. 26, 2016, Bissonnette had been on a two-week medical leave from his job at Hema-Quebec, where he worked part-time since the summer of 2014 and had been thinking of committing suicide for those two weeks.
Bissonnette told Lamontagne that on that day, he went to his parents’ house and drank two glasses of wine. Then, he took his two handguns and five chargers, containing 10 bullets each and drove to the underground parking lot at Place Laurier. He loaded one of the handguns and then drank alcohol that he hid in his vehicle.
He contemplated shooting himself in his car or going into the shopping centre and shooting at people. He said he wasn’t able to do either and ended up going to a nearby Starbucks with his guns in his backpack where he worked on his laptop for a while before going back home.
Lamontagne told the court Bissonnette was the victim of bullying that began in Grade 5, a fact confirmed by the defence’s first witness, a former high school teacher, who said she regrets not intervening more in the bullying she says Bissonnette endured almost daily that was sometimes physical.
Bissonnette even repeated one year of high school in order to no longer be in the same class as his harassers but continued to be bullied by students in his new class.
Bissonnette told Lamontagne that at 16, he started thinking about suicide and thought about burning down the school as an act of vengeance, but that these thoughts just made him more suicidal.
Throughout his teen and adult years, Bissonnette consulted several doctors and psychologists. He was prescribed anti-depressants, such as Luvox and Paxil. Bissonnette began taking Paxil at the beginning of January 2017. He told Lamontagne that he doubled, even tripled his dose and also consumed alcohol.
At 18, he began to make a few friends and started to drink alcohol when going out with them. Lamontagne testified that Bissonnette had three one-night stands in his early 20s, but no long-term relationships.
He said Bissonnette told him that he wasn’t able to approach women when he wasn’t drunk. He also used alcohol to manage his anxiety. In 2013, he started drinking alone as well as before work. By 2016, Bissonnette was drinking six times a week, at least eight drinks in one sitting and hiding alcohol in his car and parents’ home.
In August 2014, Bissonnette planned to hang himself in his parents’ shed one day when they were at the family cabin but changed his mind when his fraternal twin brother decided to stay home. Two months later, he received his restricted firearms licence after lying on his application that he did not have psychiatric problems in his past, nor suicidal thoughts.
It was around this time that he became interested in mass shootings and the shooters responsible, feeling an affinity for those of them who’d also been bullied or mistreated in their childhoods.
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Attentat à québec: L’accusé était traité pour anxiété et avait des problèmes d’alcool — (Actualité, le Journal de Québec)
STÉPHANE ALARIE
Lors de son arrestation, Alexandre Bissonnette était en possession d’un pistolet 9mm dûment enregistré. C’est la première fois qu’une arme légalement acquise sert à un tel carnage dans la province.
Pour obtenir son permis, comme tout demandeur, le jeune homme de 27 ans a d’ailleurs dû passer à travers un processus de vérification exhaustif établi par la loi. Il a ainsi dû rencontrer un policier, identifier deux répondants et fournir des informations sur son état de santé et son comportement.
«Les personnes identifiées comme répondantes de tout demandeur sont systématiquement contactées», explique Martine Asselin, porte-parole de la Sûreté du Québec, sans toutefois pouvoir s’étendre sur le cas de Bissonnette. Les conjoints ou ex-conjoints sont aussi toujours contactés.
Entourage questionné
Chaque fois, on s’assure que ces personnes peuvent parler librement et en l’absence du demandeur concerné, précise la lieutenante Asselin. On leur demande alors, notamment, s’ils ont des inquiétudes sur l’état mental du demandeur, sur ses agissements ou sur son entourage.
Quant au demandeur lui-même, outre ses antécédents judiciaires, il doit divulguer sur un formulaire s’il a déjà eu des problèmes de consommation d’alcool, de dépression ou des pensées suicidaires.
En de tels cas, on peut exiger du demandeur qu’il produise son dossier médical. «S’il refuse, le permis ne sera pas donné», souligne la lieutenante Asselin. De toute façon, de tels événements seront relevés lors des vérifications menées auprès du Centre de renseignements policiers du Québec.
Le demandeur doit aussi dévoiler s’il a été impliqué dans des incidents, même s’ils n’ont pas mené à des accusations, comme une banale chicane de voisins.
La SQ pousse les vérifications jusque sur les réseaux sociaux lorsque la moindre préoccupation apparaît dans un dossier ou si la demande concerne un fusil d’assaut.
Selon nos sources, lorsque Bissonnette a fait une demande de permis pour arme à autorisation restreinte il y a à peine deux ans, personne n’a émis de réserves parmi les gens contactés à l’époque, dont son père.
Personne de son entourage n’aurait non plus signalé aux autorités la détérioration de son état par la suite, même s’il était désormais traité pour anxiété et avait développé des problèmes d’alcool, selon nos informations.
Même chose du côté de membres de son club de tir, qui ont dit avoir trouvé Bissonnette «bizarre», sans pour autant penser à alerter les policiers.
Fait méconnu, la SQ offre précisément une «Ligne préoccupation», qui permet aux gens de signaler toute inquiétude au sujet d’un détenteur de permis d’armes à feu en composant le 1 800 731-4000.
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Quebec City mosque attack suspect known as online troll inspired by French far-right — (The Globe and Mail)
The suspect in the deadly attack on a Quebec City mosque was known in the city’s activist circles as an online troll who was inspired by extreme right-wing French nationalists, stood up for U.S. President Donald Trump and was against immigration to Quebec – especially by Muslims.
Alexandre Bissonnette, 27, a student at Laval University, grew up on a quiet crescent in the Cap-Rouge suburb of Quebec City and lived in an apartment a few kilometres away.
His online profile and school friendships revealed little interest in extremist politics until last March, when France’s far-right National Front Leader Marine Le Pen visited Quebec City, inspiring Mr. Bissonnette to vocal extreme online activism, according to people who clashed with him starting around this time.
Vincent Boissoneault, a student in international relations at Laval University, knew Mr. Bissonnette from childhood and was friends with him on Facebook.
He said they frequently argued over politics when Mr. Bissonnette attacked refugees or expressed support for Ms. Le Pen or Mr. Trump.
In the wake of Sunday’s attack, rumours about the identity of the attacker have run wild alongside speculation about motivation, ranging from white supremacy to Islamic terrorism.
“I can tell you he was certainly no Muslim convert,” Mr. Boissoneault said. “I wrote him off as a xenophobe. I didn’t even think of him as totally racist, but he was enthralled by a borderline racist nationalist movement.
“It never occurred to me he might be violent,” Mr. Boissoneault added, referring to the hard-line anti-immigration sentiment growing in popularity in Europe and elsewhere.
François Deschamps, an employment counsellor who runs a refugee-support Facebook page, said he immediately recognized Mr. Bissonnette’s photo from his frequent appearances online, including on the page he administers.
“He was someone who made frequent extreme comments in social media denigrating refugees and feminism. It wasn’t outright hate, rather part of this new nationalist conservative identity movement that is more intolerant than hateful.”
Both Mr. Boissoneault and Mr. Deschamps recalled Mr. Bissonnette sharing anti-immigration sentiment, especially toward Muslim refugees making their way to Europe from the war-torn Middle East.
Mr. Bissonnette’s Facebook profile was removed from public view just after 11 a.m. Monday along with his comments on other social-media feeds.
In addition to being a student, Mr. Bissonnette worked in a call centre for Quebec’s blood donation agency, Héma-Québec. “These events have sent a shock wave through the organization,” the agency said in a news release. It was not clear how long he worked there.
Mr. Bissonnette lived on the top floor of a four-storey apartment in a complex of buildings filled with retirees and students. The complex on de la Verdure Street is one kilometre away from the mosque where the shooting took place and a 40-minute walk from the Laval campus.
Police searched the apartment Monday night and offered no details as they left.
Sarah-Jeanne Viau, who lived underneath the apartment, said she’d never seen who moved in last fall but there was “all kinds of noises. Steps, jumps, sometimes I’d hear a piano and often yelling.”
Ms. Viau said Monday was one of the quieter evenings from the apartment above hers.
A couple of nights before the shooting, Ms. Viau said she and her boyfriend were awoken at 3 a.m. by yelling and loud banging from upstairs.
“It got to the point where I had trouble sleeping,” Ms. Viau said. “It’s such a ruckus.”
Piano playing drifted down through her ceiling sometimes. “It was beautiful so I didn’t mind it that much,” Ms. Viau said, noting the melodies would last late into the night.
Other neighbours reported seeing Mr. Bissonnette’s silver Mitsubishi in the parking lot, but not much of the man himself. Two men living across the hall said they didn’t know who lived there but that it was often noisy.
Before Ms. Le Pen’s visit, Mr. Bissonnette’s friends say he showed little interest in politics, despite studying the subject at Laval University.
Former classmates from the CEGEP junior college he attended after high school described him as a quiet, unassuming guy who blended in. “It’s scary that this would happen here,” said one of the friends, Antoine Cabanac.
Michel Kingma-Lord, who grew up with Mr. Bissonnette in the Cap-Rouge neighbourhood, said he was “shocked” by the news that his erstwhile friend was suspected in a mass shooting. The two had grown apart in recent years, but spent many happy hours collecting minerals together as boys, scouring the schoolyard for bits of quartz.
“He was a really good guy,” Mr. Kingma-Lord said. “A very generous kind of guy, always listening, polite.”
Mr. Bissonnette studied political science, Mr. Kingma-Lord said, but seemed more interested in the campus chess club than any kind of ideology. “He never posted anything about hate speech,” Mr. Kingma-Lord said.
“He wouldn’t share any political ideology. When we talked, it was just normal talk.”
Acquaintances from Mr. Bissonnette’s earlier years at Les Compagnons-de-Cartier high school in Quebec City say he was introverted, socially awkward and frequently bullied. Toma Popescu remembered bigger kids teasing Mr. Bissonnette for his slight, pallid appearance and his unfashionable clothing. “He dressed like a country boy,” Mr. Popescu said.
The bullies who targeted Mr. Bissonnette would demand his money and his lunch, even roughing him up, Mr. Popescu added. But Mikael Labrecque Berger said that Mr. Bissonnette wasn’t cowed by his social problems at school.
“He never seemed to take it like personally,” Mr. Berger said. “He had an almost happy attitude about it.”
“Someone [would] tell him, ‘You’re ugly,’ and he would say, ‘You too are ugly.’”
Before it was removed, Mr. Bissonnette’s Facebook page revealed normal preoccupations of young adulthood. While he “liked” the page of Ms. Le Pen and other right-wing politicians, he also liked Garfield and pop stars such as Katy Perry.
On Halloween, Mr. Bissonnette posted a picture of himself in a screaming ghoul costume – first popularized by the Scream horror-movie franchise. “Nothing original but it’s a classic,” he wrote.
He also posted a photo of himself wearing what appeared to be a cadet uniform several years ago.
A spokesman for the Canadian Forces confirmed that Mr. Bissonnette had participated in the cadet program from 2002 to 2004 in the Quebec City area.
Records show he bought a Chevy Malibu with his twin brother, Mathieu, in 2011. They were also chess-club teammates around that time.
Police searched a house belonging to Mr. Bissonnette’s father, Raymond Bissonnette, on Monday morning.
The address showed up on several traffic tickets issued to Alexandre Bissonnette in recent years.
Police say the suspect was not on their radar before the attack. A search of court records shows no other involvement with police other than traffic tickets.
With reports from Verity Stevenson and Sean Gordon in Quebec City, Colin Freeze and Tu Thanh Ha in Toronto and Daniel Leblanc in Ottawa
‘ I WAS BATTLING A DEMON’: MOSQUE SHOOTER GUILTY — (National Post)
Bissonnette, 28, admits killing six at Quebec Islamic centre in 2017
March 29, 2018
ANDY RIGA
FACEBOOK / THE CANADIAN PRESS
QU EBEC CIT Y • Pleading for forgiveness, Alexandre Bissonnette told a hushed Quebec courtroom that he doesn’t know why he fatally shot six Muslim men as they prayed in a Quebec City mosque last year.
“Despite what has been said about me, I am neither a terrorist nor an Islamophobe,” he told the court. “Rather, I am someone who was overcome by fear, by negative thoughts and by desperation.”
“It’s as though I was battling a demon that finished by winning out,” he said.
His wrists and ankles shackled, Bissonnette, 28, appeared to be holding back tears as he changed his plea to guilty to six counts of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder in connection with Jan. 29, 2017 attack.
“I would like to ask you to forgive me for all the wrongs that I have done but I know what I did is unforgivable,” he said.
Bissonnette said he thinks every moment of the day about “the lives I destroyed, the immense pain that I caused to so many people, including members of my own family.”
Bissonnette had pleaded not guilty on Monday, the first day of what was to be a two-month trial. But hours later, he told the judge he wanted to plead guilty.
Taken aback, Superior Court Justice François Huot ordered a psychiatric evaluation before deciding how to proceed. A publication ban prevented reporting on it until Wednesday.
Psychiatrist Sylvain Faucher evaluated Bissonnette on Monday. He testified on Wednesday that Bissonnette understood what he was doing, was able to make the decision on his own and appreciated the consequences.
Bissonnette sat in the prisoners’ box looking sullen for most of the hearing.
T he judge asked him whether he would like to stick with the guilty plea.
“You’re comfortable with that?” the judge asked.
“Yes, I’m comfortable with that,” Bissonnette said.
Huot then found Bissonnette guilty of all charges, naming all 12 victims. Muffled crying could be heard as the names of the dead were read: Azzedine Soufiane, Khaled Belkacemi, Abdelkrim Hassane, Aboubaker Thabti, Mamadou Tanou Barry and Ibrahima Barry.
Dozens in the Muslim community were in attendance. Among them were all six widows and Aymen Derbali, left paralyzed after risking his life to save others during the shooting at the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec.
Before he changed his plea, the judge asked Bissonnette if he understood he could be facing up to 150 years in prison. Bissonnette said he understood. He will be sentenced on April 10.
Prosecutor Thomas Jacques said he hopes the guilty plea allows survivors and relatives of those killed to “quench their thirst for justice and to ease their intense suffering.”
Mohamed Labidi, a former president of the mosque, said Bissonnette’s three minute address left him wanting a fuller explanation of why he did what he did.
“It’s very abstract what he told us,” Labidi said. “We still need other explanations. The small words don’t convince us about all the motives of the crime.
“It’s not a complete answer for me. What he said as to why he did this crime it’s very, very short.”
A search warrant made public Wednesday shed light on Bissonnette’s state of mind and hinted at a possible motive. Manon Marchand told police her son, a Université Laval student, was “very anxious and unstable” and had recently been prescribed a drug used to treat depression, obsessions, compulsions, panic disorder and anxiety, according to the warrant, part of which had been under a publication ban.
Marchand also told investigators Bissonnette agreed with U. S. President Donald Trump’s assertion that “all immigration should be blocked,” the warrant noted.
Bissonnette had four firearms — two handguns, two rifles — on the night of the attack. About 20 minutes after the shooting, he called 911. He said he wanted to turn himself in but also said he wanted to shoot himself in the head.
Bissonnette’s mother told police he dined with his parents that evening, then went to a shooting range he belonged to, but it was closed.
At the mosque, prayers ended around 7:45 p.m. Calls to 911 about the shooting starting coming in at 7: 54 p. m. About four minutes later, the first police officers arrived. They found victims scattered around the mosque.