NATHANIEL VELTMAN: Judge finds mass murderer committed terrorism

A London judge has decided that mass murderer Nathaniel Veltman’s crimes amounted to terrorism.

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That was the conclusion Thursday as Superior Court Regional Senior Justice Renee Pomerance began her sentencing decision in the case against Veltman, 23, who faces life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years, the mandatory term under the law.

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What remained in question was whether Pomerance would make a finding of fact that Veltman was motivated by a religious, ideological or political purpose when he murdered the London family, which would meet the definition of a terrorist act.

Thursday, in a court in London, Pomerance said she wanted to tell the court at the start that she would be declaring him to be a terrorist. She wouldn’t mention him by name in her decision, she said, because it would only give him notoriety.

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Veltman, she said, “was seeking a place in the spotlight” when he committed the murders.

“It is my hope, the sense of fear and intimidation won’t be a lasting message of these actions,” she said, adding “there is no place in Canadian society for hatred and racism that spawned the offender’s actions on June 6, 2021 .”

Veltman was found guilty by a jury in November after a marathon trial in Windsor of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for the shocking hit-and-run crash on June 6, 2021 where four members of a London Muslim family were killed while out for a spring walk.

Talat Afzaal, 74, her son Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Madiha Salman, 44 and their daughter Yumnah Afzaal, 15, were killed when Veltman, then an avowed white nationalist, drove his soup-up Dodge Ram pickup truck into them at a northwest London intersection.

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A nine-year-old boy, Salman Afzaal and Madiha Salman’s son, was seriously injured and left orphaned.

After his arrest, he told the police he targeted the family because of what they were wearing – “because they were Muslim.”

He also said he committed the murders to send a message to Muslims and inspire other young white nationalists considering similar attacks.

Also found in Veltman’s apartment was a written manifesto he titled, A White Awakening, where he outlined his political views and called on white people to rise up.

More later at lfpress.com

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