A Canadian judge ruled Thursday that a man’s deadly rampage when he hit five members of a Muslim family with his truck was an act of terrorism motivated by white supremacist ideology and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of release. parole for 25 years for his crimes. .
Ontario Superior Court of Justice Justice Renee Pomerance’s terrorism finding was the first in Canada against a far-right extremist, according to the country’s criminal prosecution service. The perpetrator, Nathaniel Veltman, 23, killed four members of the Afzaal family in London, Ont., in his June 2021 rampage and was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder in November.
During the trial, Mr. Veltman’s lawyers did not dispute that he had deliberately driven his Ram truck into the family. But they claimed it was an impulsive act caused by consuming psilocybin, more commonly known as magic mushrooms, several hours earlier. They also said he suffered from mental health problems and had difficulty controlling “the urge or obsession to put his foot on the accelerator” of his pickup truck.
But Judge Pomerance said Veltman was motivated by white supremacy.
“One might go so far as to characterize this as a textbook example of terrorist motivation and intent,” Justice Pomerance said in the London, Ont., courtroom, according to The Canadian Press news agency.
“He wanted to intimidate the Muslim community. “He wanted to follow in the footsteps of other mass murderers and wanted to inspire others to commit murderous acts,” she said, adding that it was an “inevitable conclusion” that the killing was an act of terrorism.
“The perpetrator did not know the victims,” the judge said during sentencing, in which he never referred to Mr. Veltman by name to avoid giving him publicity. “He had never met them. “I killed them because they were Muslims.”
The terrorism discovery was mostly symbolic and had no impact on the sentencing of Mr. Veltman, 23. Under Canadian law, first-degree murder convictions carry a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole for 25 years. But Sarah Shaikh, the prosecutor, told reporters that the discovery was important nonetheless.
“This is an acknowledgment that the perpetrator’s attack was not only targeted at the Afzaal family, but was also targeted and directed against the entire Muslim community,” he said.
“It was also an attack on the values that we Canadians hold dear: inclusiveness, community, decency and multiculturalism,” he added.
Since the killing, many members of Canada’s Muslim community had called for the killings to be formally declared an act of terrorism.
Mr. Veltman told police he aimed his full-size pickup truck at his victims because he believed them to be Muslim based on their clothing, prosecutors said during the 10-week trial.
Mr. Veltman passed the Afzaals near a busy intersection and made a U-turn to mow them down, prosecutors said during the trial.
I killed three generations of the family. The youngest was Yumnah Afzaal, 15 years old. Her parents, Salman Afzaal, a 46-year-old physiotherapist, and Madiha Salman, 44, a doctoral student in civil engineering, are dead, as is Mr Afzaal’s mother, Talat Afzaal, 74.
At trial, prosecutors said Mr. Veltman had become obsessed with white supremacist ideology and had written a manifesto titled “A White Awakening” just five days before moving in with the family.
A little boy was the only survivor of the attack.
A jury convicted Veltman of first-degree murder and attempted murder in November, but the terrorism charge was delayed until Thursday’s sentencing hearing.
Speaking on behalf of the family outside court, Tabinda Bukhari, Ms Salman’s mother, said that while Thursday’s ruling recognized that hatred had taken the lives of four people, it would not replace what her family had lost.
“It will not mend the fractured pieces of our lives, our identities and our security,” he said, reading a statement.