A Canadian judge has ruled that a man who killed four members of a Muslim family and severely injured their boy committed white nationalist terrorism.
Nathaniel Veltman, 22, was sentenced to five life sentences – four for murder and one for attempted murder.
Veltman was found guilty by a jury in November.
He ran down the family with his truck in 2021 while they were walking in London, Ontario, about 120 miles (200km) southwest of Toronto.
Salman Afzaal, 46, and his wife Madiha Salman, 44, were killed by Veltman when he struck them with his truck. Their daughter Yumna Afzaal, 15, and Mr Afzaal’s 74-year-old mother, Talat Afzaal, also died in the attack. The couple’s nine-year-old son was seriously injured.
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According to evidence introduced at trial, Veltman targeted the family randomly after spotting the two women in the family wearing traditional Pakistani dress.
The judge noted that Veltman picked out “innocent victims he had never met”, and after the crimes, he confessed to police and flashed the OK symbol – an everyday gesture that white supremacists have attempted to co-opt.
Veltman will not be eligible for parole for 25 years.
The case was the first time a Canadian jury heard legal arguments about white supremacist terrorism.
During an earlier sentencing hearing in January, an unprecedented number of victim impact statements – nearly 70 – were given in court.
Many remarks underscored the irreparable harm experienced by the relatives and friends of the Afzaals – especially the family’s orphaned son.
A statement written by the son was also read out during the January hearing.
The boy said that he was “very sad at the fact I can’t talk to my family anymore and make new memories with them”.
“I will have to get the metal plate in my leg removed which will be painful and I will have to learn how to walk again,” he wrote.
He ended his statement with a message “To all the young kids”.
“You may think that your siblings are really annoying, and to be honest I thought the same about Yumnah, but when they leave, you would love to fight with them one last time,” he wrote.
The Afzaal family moved to Canada from Islamabad in 2007. Their murder raised concerns in the wider Muslim community in London and Canada in the aftermath of the attack. (BBC)
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