Quebec City sword attacker testifies he 'needed to kill people'

The man accused in the 2020 Quebec City sword attacks testified in his murder trial on Wednesday, telling the jury that by the time he turned 18, he had become obsessed with an urge to complete a mission — one that required him to kill people and to die.

"The mission was of the utmost importance,'' Carl Girouard told jurors. "It had to be accomplished at all costs. It wasn't a desire ... it was a duty.''

The 26-year-old man has acknowledged he carried out the Halloween night attacks but says he cannot be held criminally responsible for his actions because he was mentally unstable at the time.

He told the court that over the years, his goals prevented him from building relationships with other people.

"I needed to kill people in my mission, and the idea of that [made it] uncomfortable for me to get close to people."

Wearing a white shirt and shackles on his ankles and wrists, Girouard took the stand in the morning, shortly after his mother's testimony.

Girouard said he quit about eight to 10 factory jobs within a span of just a few years, because he did not want his co-workers to get to know him. For that same reason, he didn't date anyone, he said.

Girouard testified he felt as if there were two Carls in his head, the real one and the one with a mission.

His notion of an alternate reality started in high school, when he was about 15 and starting to play video games that involved violence, fighting, swords and medieval settings, he said.

"I would mix the world of video games with the real world," he told the jury. He said he started thinking school wasn't good, and that the world should look more like his video games.

The young man, who is from Sainte-Thérèse, Que., near Montreal, said he didn't like the modern world. 

He thought there were too many cars, found it weird that people didn't say hi to each other when passing by, and felt people weren't free because they had to dress normally.

He wanted to create chaos to change the world and inspire what he called his "alter egos" — people with similar goals —to follow his example.

That's why he chose Halloween 2020, a night with a full moon and Old Quebec, he said. He felt the setting was right to send a message.