A man who killed four members of a Muslim family in London, Ont., committed an act of terrorism fuelled by white nationalist ideology, an Ontario judge ruled Thursday in sentencing him to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Nathaniel Veltman was also sentenced to a concurrent life sentence for the attempted murder of a boy who survived the 2021 attack.
Mr. Veltman, 23, was found guilty in November of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for hitting the Afzaal family with his truck while they were out for a walk.
He killed 46-year-old Salman Afzaal; his 44-year-old wife, Madiha Salman; their 15-year-old daughter, Yumna; and her 74-year-old grandmother, Talat Afzaal. The couple’s nine-year-old son was seriously hurt but survived.
Mr. Veltman “exemplified the prototypical ‘lone wolf’,” keeping his beliefs—and a written manifesto—to himself until after he committed his crimes, said Justice Renee Pomerance, who presided over the trial.
But once he carried out his deadly plan, Mr. Veltman “made it clear that he wanted to the world to know what he had done and why he had done it,” she said in delivering her sentencing decision to a packed London courtroom.
“This was part of a plan. He wanted to intimidate the Muslim community. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of other mass killers, and he wanted to inspire others to commit murderous acts.”
Members of the Afzaal family were seen crying and nodding as Justice Pomerance delivered her decision and some later hugged each other after the judge left the courtroom.
Mr. Veltman showed no visible emotion when the terrorism finding was made and was seen asking his lawyer a question after the sentencing concluded.
Justice Pomerance, who explicitly chose not to name Mr. Veltman in her ruling to deny him the publicity he sought for his beliefs, said “the brutality of the crime, its random character, the hatred that fueled that and the consequences ... calls for the imposition of the strictest penalty known to Canadian law.”
First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years, but there is discretion in sentencing for attempted murder.
The case was the first time Canada’s terrorism laws were put before a jury in a first-degree murder trial.
In delivering her sentencing decision, Justice Pomerance ruled it was an “inescapable conclusion” that Mr. Veltman committed a terrorist act.
“The offender did not know the victims. He had never met them. He killed them because they were Muslim,” she said.
“One might go so far as to characterize this as a textbook example of terrorist motive and intent.”
