The shooter who invaded a Quebec City Mosque last year and opened fire told police that he “lost his mind” after reading Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Twitter invitation to the world’s refugees, assuring them that “Canada will welcome you.”
The Globe and Mail reports that Alexandre Bissonnette’s interrogation tape with Quebec police was played at Bissonette’s sentencing hearing on Friday. He has pleaded guilty to killing six men and wounding five others in the shooting spree.
Bissonnette told police that Trudeau’s cavalier attitude towards immigration policy contrasted sharply with that of newly-elected President Donald Trump, who had just announced a travel ban on citizens from some Muslim countries when Trudeau issued his now infamous tweet: “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada.”
“I was watching TV and I learned that the Canadian government was going to take more refugees, you know, who couldn’t go to the United States, and they were coming here,” Bissonnette replied. “I saw that and I, like, lost my mind. It was then that I decided it was time to go.”