It appears the characterization of Canada’s parliament shooter as a “recent convert to Islam” isn’t true at all. Via Weasel Zippers, some interesting background from Fox News…

The paper had previously reported that Zehaf-Bibeau had been designated by authorities as a “high-risk traveller” and was unable to secure documents necessary to go abroad. The friend, a fellow convert to Islam named David Bathurst, told the paper that Zehaf-Bibeau had told him six weeks ago that he wanted to travel to Libya, where he had previously spent time, to study Arabic and learn more about Islam. Bathurst told the paper he urged his friend to make certain that he would only travel to the Middle East to study and “nothing else.”

Zehaf-Bibeau may also have had a family connection to Libya. Official documents list Zehaf-Bibeau’s father as a man named Bulgasem Zehaf, a Quebec businessman. The Globe and Mail cited this 2011 Washington Times report that quoted a Montreal man named as “Belgasem Zahef” who had taken part in the revolt against Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi. That man claimed that he had traveled from Canada to join the anti-Qaddafi rebels and had been detained for a month at an oil terminal, where he had witnessed scenes of torture.

Zehaf-Bibeau’s mother is Susan Bibeau, the deputy chairperson of a division of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board. Zehaf and Bibeau divorced in 1999, according to the Globe and Mail.

Bathurst told the paper Zehaf-Bibeau had moved to British Columbia to find work as a miner and laborer before the two met in a suburban Vancouver mosque approximately three years ago. Bathurst said that his friend displayed signs of mental instability that attracted the attention of the mosque’s elders.

So this man’s father took up the jihad against Qaddafi, which of course our president assisted without authorization and we know how that turned out, and he then took up the jihad back home in Canada.

This guy was pretty much what one might expect would come when you combine an Islamic heritage, alienation from family, a criminal past and drugs…

According to British Columbia Court records, a “Michael Joseph Paul Zehaf Bibeau” committed robbery in Vancouver on December 16, 2011, and also racked up a lesser charge of uttering threats.

As of Tuesday evening, Vancouver Police were working with Ottawa law enforcement to pass on information about the suspect’s time in B.C.

“The Vancouver Police Department, along with the BC RCMP, are working together to assist an Ottawa City Police and RCMP National Security investigation,” wrote Vancouver Police spokesman Randy Fincham late Wednesday afternoon. “Due to the ongoing investigation, there is little information we can share at this time,” he added.

Citing confidential sources, the Globe and Mail reported Tuesday that Mr. Bibeau was a “high-risk traveller” whose passport had been seized to prevent him from travelling abroad to join ISIS fighters in Iraq or Syria.

There is a real problem with disaffected young folks in Western countries attempting to join ISIS. Not all of them are Muslim kids searching for true religion, either; some are Christian and Jews trying to convert. That’s what political correctness and multiculturalism will give you; if you don’t enforce your own culture you’re going to find out that some people will go searching for other cultures to belong to. We actually promote that in films like Dances With Wolves, The Last Samurai and Avatar. The fact that we rob our kids of a spirit of adventure by not letting them play contact sports or play on monkey bars or ride their bikes unsupervised to the local playground doesn’t help, either.

But Zehaf-Bibeau didn’t go native. He was already there. And Canadian authorities knew it; they’d flagged his passport in an attempt to keep him from traveling to the Middle East. One wonders if maybe that’s the wrong approach – what you want to do isn’t to keep him from going abroad; it’s to stop him from returning.

We don’t do that in this country, and it’s going to cost us some good people.