Canadian judge rules that the murder of four Muslims was terrorism

A Canadian judge ruled Thursday that the deadly rampage of a man who crashed his truck into five members of a Muslim family was an act of terror motivated by white supremacist ideology and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years for his crimes. .

The country’s criminal prosecution said the terrorism finding by Ontario Supreme Court Justice Renee Pomerance was the first in Canada against a far-right extremist. The perpetrator, Nathaniel Veltman, 23, murdered four members of the Afzaal family in London, Ontario, during his rampage in June 2021 and was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder in November.

At his trial, Mr. Veltman’s lawyers did not dispute that he deliberately drove his Ram truck into the family. But they argued it was an impulsive act caused by consuming psilocybin, commonly known as magic mushrooms, several hours earlier. They also said he had mental health issues and had difficulty controlling “an urge or obsession with putting his foot on the accelerator” of his pickup.

But Judge Pomerance said Mr. Veltman was motivated by white supremacy.

“You could go so far as to characterize this as a textbook example of terrorist motives and intent,” Judge Pomerance told the courtroom in London, Ontario, according to news agency The Canadian Press.

“He wanted to intimidate the Muslim community. “He wanted to follow in the footsteps of other mass murderers, and he wanted to inspire others to commit murderous acts,” she said, adding that it was an “inescapable conclusion” that the killing was an act of terror.

“The perpetrator did not know the victims,” the judge said during the ruling, in which she never mentioned Mr Veltman by name to prevent him from receiving publicity. “He had never met them. He killed them because they were Muslim.”

The terrorism finding was largely symbolic and did not affect the conviction of Mr. Veltman, 23. Under Canadian law, convictions for first-degree murder carry a mandatory life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years. But Sarah Shaikh, the prosecutor, told reporters the finding was still important.

“It is an acknowledgment that the perpetrator’s attack was not only against the Afzaal family, but also against the entire Muslim community,” she said.

“It was also an attack on values ​​that we as Canadians hold dear – inclusivity, community, decency and multiculturalism,” she added.

From the time of the murder, many members of Canada’s Muslim community had called for the killings to be formally declared an act of terror.

Mr. Veltman told police he pointed his full-size pickup at his victims because he believed they were Muslims based on their clothing, prosecutors said during his 10-week trial.

Mr. Veltman drove past the Afzaals at a busy intersection and made a U-turn to mow them down, prosecutors said during the trial.

He killed three generations of the family. The youngest was Yumnah Afzaal, 15. Her parents, Salman Afzaal, a 46-year-old physiotherapist, and Madiha Salman, 44, a doctoral student in civil engineering, died, as did Mr Afzaal’s mother, Talat Afzaal, 74.

During the trial, prosecutors said Mr. Veltman had become obsessed with white supremacist ideology and wrote a manifesto titled “A White Awakening” just five days before he mowed down the family.

A young boy was the only survivor of the attack.

A jury convicted Mr. Veltman in November of first-degree murder and attempted murder, but the terrorism finding was postponed until Thursday’s hearing.

Tabinda Bukhari, Ms Salman’s mother, said on behalf of the family outside the courthouse that while Thursday’s ruling recognized that hatred had cost the lives of four people, it would not replace what her family had lost.

“It will not fix the broken pieces of our lives, our identities and our security,” she said, reading from a statement.