Canada white supremacist Nathaniel Veltman gets life sentence for killing Muslim family with truck
- The ruling is the first in the country a to make a link between white supremacy and terrorism in a murder case
- Veltman struck members from 3 generations of the Afzaal family with his vehicle, killing 4 of them and leaving a young boy orphaned
A white supremacist committed terrorism when he ran down a Muslim family out for an evening stroll, a Canadian judge said on Thursday as she sentenced him to life in prison for the murders.
The ruling is the first in Canada to make a link between white supremacy and terrorism in a murder case.
Nathaniel Veltman, 23, was convicted in November of four counts of first degree or premeditated murder, and one count of attempted murder in the killing of three generations of the Afzaal family that also left a young boy orphaned.
He acknowledged striking the family with his pickup truck in June 2021 in London, Ontario.
The prosecution argued at trial that he sought to intimidate and terrorise Muslims, while the defence said he had suffered a mental decline – which did not, however, meet the requirements for an insanity plea.