Quebec mosque shooting suspect couldn’t invoke NCR defence: psychiatrist

QUEBEC — Alexandre Bissonnette was hoping for a defence of not criminally responsible when he faked having psychotic symptoms such as hearing voices, a forensic psychiatrist hired by the defence said Tuesday.

The Quebec City mosque shooter was also looking for a way of making his act more acceptable in the eyes of his parents, Sylvain Faucher added later as he was cross-examined by the Crown.

Faucher, who met with Bissonnette at the defence’s request in 2017, said he told the accused’s lawyers he didn’t think they could successfully mount a defence of not criminally responsible for their client.

He concluded it wouldn’t be possible because the man who killed six worshippers in a Quebec City mosque in January of that year understood his acts and was capable of knowing if they were good or bad.

Another psychiatrist, Marie-Frederique Allard, reached the same conclusion.

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“It’s clear he was responsible,” she said.

The psychiatrists both testified Tuesday at Bissonnette’s sentencing arguments in a Quebec City courtroom.

Bissonnette, 28, pleaded guilty in March to six charges of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder related to the deadly mosque shooting.

Bissonnette’s first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

But he can also receive consecutive sentences, which means he could spend up to 150 years in prison.

Faucher said Bissonnette claimed to have heard voices which spoke to him and prompted to act.

Faucher said he didn’t believe the claims and concluded the shooter was trying to “save face.”

Allard, for her part, said Bissonnette spoke at one point of hearing voices but that he later admitted it was untrue.

“He was scared his parents wouldn’t want to see him,” after they learned there was no reason for the shooting, she noted in her report.

The report noted that Bissonnette was dependent on his parents and often called them four to five times a day. As a teenager, he once had to be taken to a medical clinic after becoming anxious when his parents went on vacation.

Faucher, for his part, suggested Bissonnette struggled with anxiety and suicidal ideas.

He said Bissonnette’s risk to reoffend was low to moderate, noting that zero risk did not exist.

“In this room, we all have a low risk,” he told the courtroom.

Allard said the shooter was not beyond rehabilitation and said he had already evolved to some degree.

Faucher also elaborated on the shooter’s possible motives, suggesting Bissonnette may have acted based on a “quest for power” to help counter his feelings of weakness and inadequacy.

He may also have been expressing resentment built up from years when he was bullied, the psychiatrist said.

The killer’s act was not necessarily fuelled by express anti-Muslim sentiment, he said, pointing out Bissonnette “did not invest in xenophobic movements.”

Rather, his attention centred on Muslims due to the “colour of the times,” Faucher explained, noting that in another era Bissonnette would likely have targeted Jews instead.

The mosque also provided a convenient target since a number of people were known to gather there at certain times.

Allard is expected to be cross-examined by the Crown on Wednesday.

The defence has said it doesn’t intend to call Bissonnette to testify.

Stephanie Marin, The Canadian Press