2014 shootings at Parliament Hill, Ottawa

Shootings at War Memorial and Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill's Centre Block, scene of the attack[1]
Location	Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Date	October 22, 2014 (2014-10-22) 9:53 a.m. – 9:55 a.m. (EDT)
Attack type	Mass shooting, domestic terrorism[2]
Weapons	.30-30 Winchester Model 94 rifle[3]
Deaths	2 (including the perpetrator)[1][4]
Injured	3[5]
Perpetrator	Michael Zehaf-Bibeau[6]
Motive	Islamic extremism

The 2014 shootings at Parliament Hill were a series of shootings that occurred on October 22, 2014, at Parliament Hill in Ottawa. At the National War Memorial, Corporal Nathan Cirillo, a Canadian soldier and reservist on ceremonial sentry duty, was fatally shot by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. Described as mentally unwell,^[7] Zehaf-Bibeau then entered the nearby Centre Block parliament building, where members of the Parliament of Canada were attending caucuses. After wrestling with a constable at the entrance, Zehaf-Bibeau ran inside and had a shootout with RCMP officers. He was shot 31 times by six officers and died on scene.^[8][9][10] Following the shootings, the downtown core of Ottawa was placed on lockdown and majority of schools in Ottawa were on lockdown while police searched for any potential additional threats.^[11][2][12]

The attacker, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, was a 32-year-old Canadian habitual offender and addiction patient from Montreal. He had been observed by acquaintances exhibiting erratic behaviour. At the time of the shooting, Zehaf-Bibeau planned to leave Canada for the Middle East and was living in a homeless shelter in Ottawa while waiting for the processing of his Canadian passport application. According to RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson the "passport issue was central to what was driving" Zehaf-Bibeau.^[13]

Zehaf-Bibeau made a video prior to the attack in which he expressed his desire to "kill some soldiers" and his motives as being related "to Canada's foreign policy and in respect of his religious beliefs."^[14] To acquaintances and co-workers, he had previously expressed support for jihadists and others in the Middle East resisting the West's intervention, but was not known to the police to be a terrorism risk. In his mother's opinion, the attack was the "last desperate act" of someone with a mental disorder who felt trapped.^[15] Canadian Muslim organizations condemned the attack.^[16]

Classified by the RCMP as a terrorist act under the Criminal Code,^[2][17] it was the most serious security breach at Parliament Hill since the 1966 parliament bombing.^[18] It took place two days after a man used his car to run over two soldiers in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, killing one. The two incidents, which attracted international attention, raised concerns about the effectiveness of police actions to prevent terrorist attacks, the prevention of radicalization and the security measures in place at federal and provincial legislatures.

The Canadian government had already prepared a bill to expand the courtroom anonymity and surveillance powers of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Canada's intelligence agency, which was due to be introduced the day of the shootings, and was postponed by the event. The government introduced new anti-terrorism measures with the Anti-terrorism Act, 2015,^[19] and creating the Parliamentary Protective Service to guard the parliament grounds. Security at Parliament Hill is to be stepped up. On June 3, 2015, it was reported that "RCMP officers have started openly carrying submachine guns on Parliament Hill as part of a visible increase to Parliament Hill security."^[20]