What Michael Zehaf Bibeau said prior to deadly Oct. 22 shooting in Ottawa

OTTAWA – RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson has released the brief video Michael Zehaf Bibeau made Oct. 22 before he fatally shot Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial, then stormed Parliament Hill.

The assault, along with the death two days earlier of Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent at the hands of a man with jihadist sympathies, sparked a debate in Canada about precisely what constitutes a terrorist attack.

The federal government has used the October attacks to justify the introduction of new anti-terrorism legislation which, among other things, seeks to broaden the powers of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Before screening the video Friday at the House of Commons public safety committee, Paulson made it clear that had Zehaf Bibeau survived the attack, he would have been charged with terrorist offences. Zehaf Bibeau was killed by security officials inside Parliament’s Centre Block.

The following is an unedited transcript provided by Paulson of what Zehaf Bibeau says in the video, which was recovered from his cellphone, found in his car on the day of the shooting. Paulson said police edited 18 seconds from the start and the end of the video for operational reasons he was not at liberty to explain.

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PARTIAL TRANSCRIPTION OF THE VIDEO OF ZEHAF BIBEAU

OCTOBER 22, 2014

To those who are involved and listen to this movie, this is in retaliation for Afghanistan and because Harper wants to send his troops to Iraq.

So we are retaliating, the Mujahedin of this world. Canada’s officially become one of our enemies by fighting and bombing us and creating a lot of terror in our countries and killing us and killing our innocents. So, just aiming to hit some soldiers just to show that you’re not even safe in your own land, and you gotta be careful.

So, may Allah accept from us. It’s a disgrace you guys have forgotten God and have you let every indecency and things running your land. We don’t, we don’t go for this. We are good people, righteous people, believers of God and believing his law and his Prophets, peace be upon them all. That’s my message to all of you in this, Inshallah, we’ll not cease until you guys decide to be a peaceful country and stay to your own and I-, and stop going to other countries and stop occupying and killing the righteous of us who are trying to bring back religious law in our countries.

Thank you.