Father of Quebec City mosque shooter urges Trudeau to stop calling his son a terrorist

The father of the Quebec City mosque shooter is urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and others to stop referring to his son as a terrorist.

In an open letter to Trudeau, Raymond Bissonnette says the label has “greatly increased” the danger to his family.

He says while his son’s crimes were “of the most terrible kind,” he had no terrorist connection “nor any particular ideology.”

Alexandre Bissonnette was sentenced in February to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 40 years for killing six worshippers and injuring six others at a mosque in January 2017.

He was not charged with terrorism, but Trudeau and others have referred to his actions in those terms.

The night of the shooting, Trudeau described it as a “terrorist attack on Muslims in a centre of worship and refuge.”

In a recent example, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told a United Nations debate on terrorism financing last month that “two years ago, a terrorist killed six people in a Quebec City mosque.”