(London) A man who killed four members of a Muslim family in London, Ont., says he is sorry for the pain and suffering he caused.
Nathaniel Veltman, 23, was convicted in November of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for hitting members of the Afzaal family with his truck as they were walking on June 6 2021.
Speaking at the sentencing hearing in London on Tuesday, Veltman said he does not pretend to understand the extent of the harm he has caused, but that he has seen the extent of the pain and the suffering his actions caused.
He said he wanted to express his regret for the loss of four innocent lives and for the fact that a young boy was left injured and left to fend for himself.
An Ontario judge heard opposing arguments Tuesday over whether the deadly attack constituted terrorism, with the Crown arguing Veltman was a white supremacist with a plan to commit violence while the defense says he held to his beliefs for him.
His trial was the first in which Canada’s terrorism laws were put before a jury in a first-degree murder trial.
A “white supremacist”
Crown prosecutor Sarah Shaikh argued Tuesday that the evidence showed Veltman was a “right-wing white nationalist and white supremacist.”
“He has a vision of a new society and a plan to realize that new society. His plan involves sending a message through a violent act,” she said.
Mme Shaikh argued that Veltman’s attack should be considered terrorism because he was motivated by white nationalist ideology at the time and had stated in a manifesto found in his apartment and to police that he wanted to send the message to Muslims that they are not welcome in Canada.
“His desire for revenge against so-called Muslim-on-white or black-on-white crimes fueled his racist beliefs that the white race is the superior race,” she said.
Veltman had a plan to inspire others to commit similar attacks, Ms.me Shaikh, noting Veltman said he was inspired by Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 people in two mosque shootings in New Zealand in 2019.
Defense attorney Christopher Hicks argued that Veltman’s attack should not be considered terrorism because he did not publish his manifesto, which the attorney said also contained anti-Semitic views.
“You have a 20-year-old young man sitting in his apartment … just taking notes,” Mr. Hicks said. He does not intend to distribute them, they are not spread anywhere. It’s on his computer and he’s practically the only one who sees them. »
Judge Renee Pomerance, who presided over the case, asked Mr. Hicks if Veltman told police he was keeping his ideology quiet so that “his plan would not be foiled.” The defense attorney said his client had obsessive and compulsive fears of detection by police or federal government intelligence agencies.
Veltman, dressed in a rumpled black jacket and shirt, sat in the courtroom listening to the arguments.
Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Madiha Salman, 44, their daughter Yumna, 15, and his grandmother Talat Afzaal, 74, were killed in the attack, while the couple’s 9-year-old son years old, was seriously injured, but survived.
Terrorist element does not constitute a separate charge
Jurors at the trial were told by the judge that they could convict Veltman of first-degree murder if they unanimously agreed that prosecutors had established that he intended to kill the victims and that he had planned and deliberated his attack. The judge also told jurors they could reach the same verdict if they found the killings constituted terrorist activity.
The terrorist element was not a separate charge, and juries do not explain how they reached their verdict. It is therefore unclear what role – if any – the terrorism allegations played in their decision.
Judge Pomerance said earlier Tuesday that in addition to hearing arguments on the terrorism issue, she would also hear arguments on what sentence Veltman should face for attempted murder.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse before the hearing began, defense attorney Peter Ketcheson said Veltman faced a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years for his convictions for first degree murder. The issue of terrorist designation could become important in a possible parole application, he said.
A decision on the terrorism issue will also be important for future cases, he said.
“There’s not a lot of case law in the area,” he said. This will set a precedent and in the future, when they determine whether or not this is a terrorist activity, they will look back to Judge Pomerance’s decision for some guidance. »
During the trial, Veltman testified that he planned to use his van, which he had purchased a month earlier, to carry out an attack and had searched for information online about what happened when pedestrians were struck by cars at different speeds.
He told the jury he felt an “urge” to hit the Afzaal family after seeing them walking on a sidewalk, adding that he knew they were Muslims from the clothes they were wearing and that he had noticed that the man in the group had a beard.
Jurors had also seen a video of Veltman telling a detective that his attack was motivated by white nationalist beliefs. The court also heard he wrote a manifesto in the weeks before the attack, describing himself as a white nationalist and peddling unfounded conspiracy theories about Muslims.
Veltman’s trial took place in Windsor, Ontario, but sentencing observation proceedings are taking place in London.