Judge rules killer of London, Ont., Muslim family committed terrorism, calling it a 'textbook example'

Warning: This story contains distressing details.

The actions of a man whowas convicted of murder and attempted murder afterdeliberatelydrivinghis truck into five members of the Afzaal family in London, Ont., on June 6, 2021, amounted toterrorism under Canadian law,a judge ruled Thursday

"I have chosen not to name the offender nor recite the hateful hateful statements thathe shared with police or in his manifesto. This is because his actions constitute terrorist activity," Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerancetold a packed courtroom.

"One might go so far as to characterize this as a textbook example of terrorist motive and intent...By not referring to the offender by name, and not restating his views, I am trying to reduce the potential use of these proceedings as a platform for the ideology that spawned the violent acts of June 6, 2021."

The tentacles of hate can reach a broad audience when they are merely a click away.- Justice Renee Pomerance

A jury in Windsorfound Nathaniel Veltman, 23, guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in November.

Yumnah Afzaal, 15, her parentsMadiha Salman, 44, an engineer,and Salman Afzaal, 46, a physiotherapistwere killed, as was family matriarch Talat Afzaal, 74, a teacher and artist. The boy who survived was among dozens of peoplewho gave victim impact statements in January during the first part of the sentencing.

The case served as a test of how Canada's terror laws apply to white nationalists.

The murder convictions carryan automatic sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years,but it was up to Pomerance to determine whether his actions constituted terrorism, based on the facts considered by the jury that convicted him. The judge also sentenced him to aconcurrent life sentence for the attempted murder of the orphaned boy, the stiffest penalty allowed under Canadian law.Defence lawyers had asked for10 years.

Afzaal family relativesexpress relief, thanks

Relatives of the Afzaal family released a statement after the hearing.

"Today's sentencing has brought relief to people near and far," the statement said. "The terrorism designation acknowledges the hate that fuelled this fire, the ugliness that took the lives of Talat, Salman, Madiha and Yumnah. But this hate didn't exist in a vacuum. It thrived in the whispers, the prejudices, the normalized fear of the other...That hate hidden in plain sight was normalized by the unchallenged belief that a racial hierarchy exists in Canada."

WATCH | CBC's coverage of judge ruling attack on Muslim family amounted to terrorism:

Judge rules killer of London, Ont., Muslim family committed terrorism

8 months ago

Duration 7:00

The actions of a man convicted of killing a London family in 2021 because of their Muslim faith amounted to terrorism, a judge has ruled. 'In fact, one could say this was a textbook case of terrorist activity,' said Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance.

Pomerance on Thursdaypointed to the impact of "social media and other internet sources, including the dark web, in amplifying and spreading messages of hate," adding thiscase stands as a cautionary tale.

"It is too simplistic to draw a straight line of causation between the offender's actions and what he read on the internet[but]the offender drew much of his rage from internet sources, which he repeatedly accessed in the days and moments leading up to the attack. The tentacles of hate can reach a broad audience when they are merely a click away."

In her decision, Pomerancerefused todetailthe racist, white supremacist ideology the accused espoused. She called terrorism and the hatred that underpins it "anathema to the democratic ideals that define a free and democratic society."

"There is no place in Canadian society for the hatred and racism that spawned the offender's actions.Because they have no place in Canadian society, they will not be given a place in my reasons," she said.

"The offender held antipathy toward any number of identifiable groups, including Muslims, Blacks, Jews and abortion doctors. However, there is a discernible thread that knits his views together," Pomerance said. "He saw the world through the prism of racist dogmaand his consumption of extremist content on the internet fed the strength of his convictions.

"This event sent ripples of fear and devastation throughout the London community and beyond.He killed them because they were Muslim."

The Crown's case was overwhelming, Pomerance said.

"All crimes offend the social order," she said. "Terrorist activity seeks to overthrow the social order. All crimes against individuals result in social harm. Terrorist activity sets out to create social harm through crimes against individuals."

Ahead of Thursday's hearing, Amira Elghawaby, Canada's Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia, saidthe facts of the case clearly point to terrorism.

"There is no doubt that the Afzaal family were killed in a deliberate act of anti-Muslim hate, and it's clear from having listened to the testimony and from seeing and understanding the evidencethis was an act that terrorized London and communities across the country," Elghawabysaid.

The Crown hadargued it would be hard to imagine a stronger case for terrorism than this one the convicted killerwrote a white supremacist manifesto, deliberately drove his pickup truck into the family because of the traditional Pakistani clothing they were wearing, and confessed to wanting to send a violent message to other Muslims and inspireother angry white men.

Our justice system has an obligation to ensure that people of all faiths and backgrounds feel like they belong, and that includes holding people accountable when they engage in acts of terrorism against racialized minorities.- Nawaz Tahir, lawyer and Hikma board member

Minority communities in Canada wanted the judge's ruling to reflect the reality that they can be terrorizedand the justice system will hold perpetrators accountable, London lawyer Nawaz Tahir, who sits on the board of Hikma, a public advocacy group that speaks on behalf of Muslims, said before the sentence was handed down.

"It's important legally but it's also important from a belonging perspective," Tahir said. "Our justice system has an obligation to ensure that people of all faiths and backgrounds feel like they belong, and that includes holding people accountable when they engage in acts of terrorism against racialized minorities."

Defence lawyers argued their client was not motivated by a particular ideology and his beliefs, however abhorrent, were not terrorism, an assertion the judge rejected.

Adding the terrorism designationcould be a factor in the convicted killer'sfuture parole board applications.

London Morning5:43Was the Afzaal family murder an act of terrorism?

CBC reporter Kate Dubinski has been following the murder trial of Nathaniel Veltman. Kate joined London Morning with an update on the sentencing hearing where the judge will decide if the mass murder was an act of terrorism.