There’s been a couple of pretty serious lies told about this whole Ottawa shooting thing that I wanted to make sure you knew about. There’s some controversy – not enough, really – about the practice of revoking passports from people who are suspected of going to join ISIS. The guy who pulled the hit-and-run two in Quebec two days before had attempted to fly to Turkey earlier that month, but instead lost his passport and got interviewed by the RCMP, who apparently felt that he was mellowing… instead he went and tried to kill a couple of soldiers, arguably because he wasn’t allowed to leave the country. The gunman (Michael Zehaf-Bibeau)was apparently in Ottawa trying to sort out his passport situation so he could leave the country. In the days following the shooting, it was repeated many times that he was trying to go to Syria. A newspaper I read (National Post Oct. 24) featured one author’s speculation that maybe or presumably he wanted to join up with ISIS fighters, while another article reported as fact that he “had intentions” of joining the fighting once he got there. So what’s their source on that? RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson had only informed the nation that he was trying to travel to Syria, not that they had any definite idea of what he wanted to do when he got there. So that reporter just decided to report his supposition as truth. But what was Paulson’s source?? MZB’s mother, Susan Bibeau. The problem is, she never said Syria, she said Saudi Arabia. The RCMP Commissioner simply heard what he wanted to hear – or what the government wanted to hear, or what they felt Canadians needed to hear. cbc.ca/news/politics/ottawa-shooting-rcmp-takes-over-investigation-opp-to-probe-police-conduct-1.2813339 Another problem is that this article is the earliest correction, two full days after the false information had first been reported. Most of the correcting articles are dated October 26th, three days later, after the vast majority of people had tuned out. I wonder how many people still think he was headed for Syria?? I have a hard time believing that was an honest mistake, or an honest delay in correcting it … but this other one is even stranger. youtube/watch?v=v4wfzWJ2Hwo Near the beginning of this video, Google Streetview is used to take us down the hall of Centre Block to where the shootout took place. At 0:47, we’ve arrived at the alcove in question. Evan Solomon points at the alcove where MZB “tucked himself right in there” for the shootout, but at that point it switches to photos to describe the situation that day, and then the TV camera footage… Later, at 2:30ish: “Let me give you an idea of how many rounds were expended; if you look at that alcove today, this is what you would see: there are nine bullet holes…” … The trouble is, you would also see those nine “bullet holes” if you had just continued to use Streetview. Apparently they were already there back in April 2013!! Check it out.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 00:52:01 +0000