Afzaal killings were terrorist attack as convicted killer sought to strike fear in Muslims, Crown argues

Warning: This story contains distressing details:

It's hard to imagine a stronger case for terrorism than the one against a man who wrote a white supremacist manifesto, deliberately drove his pickup truck into a London, Ont., family, and confessed to wanting to send a violent message to other Muslims and inspire other angry white men, prosecutors told a sentencing hearing Tuesday.

The sentencing of Nathaniel Veltman that began earlier this month with two days of victim impact statements continued in London with legal arguments on the issue of whether his crimes against five members of the Afzaal family meet the legal definition of terrorism.

Alongside the four mandatory life sentences he faces for being convicted in November of four counts of first-degree murder, Crown attorney Sarah Shaikh asked Justice Renee Pomerance to give him a concurrent life sentence for the attempted murder of a boy who was the only survivor of the attack.

"The offender wanted to make Muslims fearful of being in Canada, fearful of going to the park, the mosque, and living their lives. He wanted to drive this fear in Muslims and instil so much fear that Muslims would leave the country," Shaikh said.

WATCH | Boy survivor, others give victim impact statements at early January hearing:

Boy whose family was killed in Islamophobic attack speaks for 1st time

18 days ago

Duration 2:51

A boy left orphaned by an Islamophobic attack on his family in London, Ont., says he wishes he could still have his sister to fight with, his mom's cooking and the house he grew up in. His words were read aloud at the sentencing hearing of his family's convicted murderer, Nathaniel Veltman.

After a 10-week trial in Windsor's Ontario Superior Court, he was convicted by a jury in the June 6, 2021, attack.

Yumnah Afzaal, 15, her parents — Madiha Salman, 44, an engineer, and Salman Afzaal, 46, a physiotherapist — were killed, as was family matriarch Talat Afzaal, 74, a teacher and artist. The boy survivor was among dozens of people who gave victim impact statements, in which many detailed the fears they now feel of walking down the street.

The convicted killer's manifesto, titled "A White Awakening" and found on his computer, is "a comprehensive political and ideological justification for a white uprising and rebellion against non-whites, particularly Muslims," Shaikh argued.

Pomerance will make a finding of facts when she hands Veltman his sentence, which is expected to happen at a later date, and will determine whether or not the attack constituted terrorist activity, as the Crown has alleged.

To meet the Criminal Code's definition of terrorism, the judge must determine the attack on the Afzaals was carried out to further a political, religious or ideological cause. This case is the first time terror charges are being considered under Canadian law against someone following a white nationalist ideology.

The convicted killer will be given a chance to speak once legal arguments have concluded, which could happen at the end of Tuesday's hearing.

In the courtroom, he sat with his head leaning back against the Plexiglas barrier separating him from the public gallery, appearing uninterested and bored with the legal goings-on.

"There should be no doubt about the offender's motivation to terrorize Muslims," Shaikh said. A life sentence is the only appropriate one for the attempted murder, she added.

"This attempted murder was committed in the context of a mass murder and that cannot be ignored. The offender is a mass murderer. The offender tried very hard to kill all the members of the family. He failed to kill [the young boy] only by luck."

At the beginning of the arguments by defence lawyer Christopher Hicks, he cautioned the judge against imposing too harsh a sentence on his client.

"The subtext for all of this is vengeance," he said. "You can't use the deaths of the four other people as a boot strap to sentence Mr. Veltman to the maximum punishment."

In asking the judge for a 10-year term on the attempted murder conviction, Hicks said his client suffered from a variety of mental ailments, and "A White Awakening" was the product of a "young man living in a studio apartment making notes to himself, with no plans to disseminate it."

"It's really quite tolerant," he said about the manifesto, a statement that raised eyebrows and gasps from the public gallery.

During the trial, the issue of Veltman's mental disorders was raised both during his testimony and by a forensic psychiatrist.

Earlier this month, Hicks told CBC News the 23-year-old's fragile mental state made it impossible for him to form the intent to carry out the attacks to achieve any specific political end.

"We're going to hope to persuade the judge that this was not an act of terrorism, that it was an act that was predicated on his mental deficits," said Hicks. "So we're going to say that his mental state was such that he didn't form the intention to intimidate the public, which is an aspect of the terrorism charge."

Adding the terrorism designation won't add to the length of his life sentence, but could be a factor in his future parole board applications.

Barbara Perry is director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at Ontario Tech University. She said the judge's decision on the terrorism question is important because it will help "set the standard" of what constitutes terrorism in such attacks.

"One would hope we wouldn't have more cases like this, but undoubtedly we will in the current climate," she said. "It's going to be important to more fully define what the standard is for determining whether a murder is motivated by terrorism."

Perry said the question of whether Veltman's crimes amount to terrorism is interesting because he wasn't affiliated with any particular group.

"That's been something that's been important in previous trials around terrorism-related events," she said.

"It's a very important symbolic message that is sent to the Muslim community and family that has been so affected by these murders."