Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, is seen in an undated picture from the Vancouver Police Department released by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Oct. 25, 2014Reuters
The RCMP is set to release the video shot ahead of the Oct. 22 attack in Ottawa during a special session of the same Conservative-dominated committee that will soon study the government's controversial anti-terrorism bill.
RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson is scheduled to show Michael Zehaf-Bibeau's video at the public safety committee of the House on Friday. Four days later, the same committee will launch its three-week study of the government's Bill C-51, which represents the most sweeping increase in power for Canadian security agencies since the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.
The NDP has filibustered the committee to hold more hearings on the legislation and now worries the government will use the public release of the video to stoke fears about terrorism to win support for the legislation.
The government has rejected widespread concerns from opposition critics, academics and other experts since the legislation was unveiled in late January. At a news conference on Wednesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that without prejudging the committee process, he has not seen any amendment "that we are going to endorse."
"The government deliberated long and hard over these changes," the Prime Minister said, noting strong public support for the bill. "We are fully committed to moving ahead with the legislation that we have tabled."
The Conservatives have defended the need for new anti-terrorism legislation by repeatedly pointing to the cases of Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau and Martin Couture-Rouleau, who killed Canadian Forces members in separate incidents last October. The legislation would beef up the powers of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, criminalize the promotion of terrorism and provide the RCMP with new powers of preventative arrest.
In the video recovered by police, Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau is said to have laid out political motives for his attack and made a religious reference. Commissioner Paulson has said previously he would push for that video to be made public, but then backtracked. He agreed to release the video after receiving a formal request from the public safety committee to do so at "his earliest convenience."
Mr. Harper said Wednesday he has not seen Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau's video, but continued to warn of the dangers posed by violent extremists.
"Canadians are well aware, not just because of the Oct. 22 attacks but because of what they can see around the world, that unfortunately the threat of terrorism, violent jihadism, is very real," Mr. Harper said.
The NDP, which has been leading the fight against the legislation, said it is up to the government to make the case that its anti-terrorism plan would have stopped Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau.
"I believe it's awfully convenient for the government that this is taking place just before the hearings [on C-51] begin," NDP MP Randall Garrison said.
The first posting on the public safety committee's website about Friday's hearing said that the RCMP Commissioner would "publicly display and discuss the video made by the individual who committed barbaric terrorist acts in Ottawa" at 11 a.m. on Friday. The word "barbaric" was quickly removed from the notice of the meeting.
Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed Corporal Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial before heading to Parliament Hill, where he ran through the main corridor of Centre Block carrying a rifle, until a fatal showdown with security.
He made a video ahead of the incident in which he tried to explain his attack, according to the RCMP.
"He was quite deliberate, he was quite lucid and he was quite purposeful in articulating the basis for his actions, and they were in respect broadly to Canada's foreign policy and also in respect of his religious beliefs," Commissioner Paulson, describing the video, told reporters after an appearance before a Senate committee in October.
Mr. Couture-Rouleau is a Muslim convert who used a car to kill Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent in a parking lot in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu on Oct. 20 last year. Mr. Couture-Rouleau's father had gone to police with concerns his son had become radicalized, but there was not enough evidence to obtain a peace bond in his case – a situation that C-51 aims to correct by easing the requirements for preventative arrests and restrictive orders.