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“Shoot me, shoot me, kill me,” Alek Minassian is heard yelling at a Toronto Police Officer as he holds an object in his hand aimed at the cop, twice mimicking the drawing of a pistol from a non-existent holster.

The man who is now charged with killing 10 pedestrians and attempting to kill 13 others is lucky he was facing one of Toronto’s Finest, who had every reason to shoot but had the courage and wisdom to put his own life in danger for the better good of the community.

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“Kill me,” Minassian dares the police. “I have a gun in my pocket.” Unmoved by his threat, the officer shouts back, “Get down or you’ll be shot!” And within seconds the alleged killer is taken into custody.

Clearly the man who had just created mayhem in Toronto was mentally unstable. His defence may argue in future that he’s not responsible for his actions.

Les Perreaux reporting in The Globe and Mail on Tuesday reveals Alek Minassian suffered from a form of autism called Asperger syndrome.

As millions of Canadians waited anxiously for the names of the casualties and the identity of the terrorist, all Canadian networks behaved like Izvestia and Pravda during the Cold War.

It was only after CBS News first identified Alek Minassian as the suspect that we learned who had struck horror on our lovely city.

This was just one of the issues that caused vigorous debate on social media in Canada. How was it that CBS News was able to identify the name and past record of Alek Minassian, but CBC News could not?

Is it possible journalists north of the border have become so terrified of being called racist or right-wing that they would rather compromise their professional standards than face harassment by left-wing trolls? Trolls who it seemed were in mass communal prayers hoping the killer would turn out to be a White Male Christian.