It took the RCMP two months to dissect, review and study 18 seconds of video recorded by Michael Zehaf Bibeau, the gunman who stormed Parliament Hill after fatally shooting Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial.
The RCMP released that footage Friday -- the final piece of a video Bibeau took of himself speaking into the camera, explaining why he was about to launch his attack.
The Mounties had withheld the footage, claiming it was central to their investigation. But it isn't clear what the video revealed that wasn't already known.
In a statement released along with the video, police said they withheld the footage -- 13 seconds from the beginning of the recording and five at the end -- in order to analyze the specific Arabic dialect used by Bibeau.
At the beginning of the newly released video, the 32-year-old Zehaf Bibeau recites a common Muslim prayer and asks Allah to "open" his chest, "ease my task for me" and "remove the impediment from my speech."
In the final five seconds, he prays again to Allah and says, "May Allah curse you," -- a warning believed to be directed at his intended targets.
Ultimately, it was Bibeau who was killed in a shootout with security forces in the Centre Block of Parliament Hill.
Bibeau does not call on other Muslims to launch their own attacks in the video -- something that was speculated as a possible reason the RCMP withheld the full video.
Police said investigators originally believed the withheld portions of the video could contain clues as to how the 32-year-old was radicalized and experts were looking into the language, dialect and subtext of his comments.
There could also have been other, more sinister content in the message, suggested David McKay, a former RCMP forensic video analyst.
"Hidden messages, codes, are passed between many different people using that medium. It's an easy way to, I guess you could say, hide something in plain sight."
The RCMP has so far not released any of their findings from the probe of the footage.
New Democrat defence critic Jack Harris said Friday he was worried the Conservative government would use the latest version of the video to ramp up public support for their controversial anti-terror legislation.
"I hope the prime minister and the government doesn't try to use this once again to frighten Canadians," Harris said. "They used that event (Oct. 22) to create Bill C-51, which I think most Canadians agree was overreaching."
Indeed, on the same day, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney issued a statement calling the video a "stark reminder of the need to remain vigilant at home and abroad."
"This is certainly a motivation for implementing (the anti-terror legislation) rapidly so our police officers can be better equipped to deal with those threats," Blaney said.
The newly released video comes on the same day Nathan Cirillo's mother Kathy Cirillo spoke out in her first TV interview since her son's death.
"He loved Canada, he loved our country," she said of her son in an interview with CHCH News in Hamilton.
She said Nathan was motivated by a duty to serve that country he loved so deeply.
"I wish I could turn back time but I'm not angry, no, I'm sad."
With a report by Omar Sachedina in Ottawa
