Salman Afzaal, his wife Madiha Salman, their daughter Yumnah, and her grandmother, Talat Afzaal, were killed in the attack. (Photo courtesy of family members)
Elham Asaad Buaras
A Canadian man accused of deliberately mowing down and killing four members of a Muslim family in London, Ontario, with his pickup truck pleaded not guilty on September 5.
Nathaniel Veltman is accused of deliberately hitting the Afzaal family members with his truck as they were out for a walk on the evening of June 6, 2021. He has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. His murder charges also include terrorism counts.
Defence lawyer Christopher Hicks entered a not-guilty plea on Veltman’s behalf. Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance ruled last year that a change of venue was warranted in the case, relocating the trial from London to Windsor, Ontario. The reason for the relocation is covered by a publication ban.
Salman Afzaal, 46; his wife, Madiha Salman, 44; their daughter, Yumnah, 15; and her grandmother, Talat Afzaal, 74, were killed in the attack. The couple’s 9-year-old son was seriously hurt but survived. Madiha and Salman came to Canada from Pakistan for a better future. Veltman was arrested shortly after the attack in a parking lot close to London’s oldest mosque, where the family worshipped.
The suspect was wearing body armour and a helmet, police said. Pomerance said the prosecution alleges that Veltman, who was 20 at the time of his arrest, was motivated by white supremacy ideology when he intentionally drove his truck ver a curb to strike the family.
As jury selection began, Abd Alfatah Twakkal, who chairs the London Council of Imams, spoke outside the court. “Tomorrow, September 6th, 2023, marks exactly 27 months since a horrific tragedy struck the Muslim community in London,” he said. “Our hope is that we can continue to heal as a community, and we’ll achieve some level of closure at the conclusion of this trial.”
The attack on the Afzaal family spurred ongoing calls for measures to combat Islamophobia in the country. The killings renewed trauma for Muslim community members across Canada, many of whom were still reeling in the aftermath of a deadly 2017 assault on a Quebec City mosque and a fatal stabbing at another mosque in Toronto in 2020.
It also prompted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to hold a national summit on Islamophobia, and in January of this year, Canada appointed its first special representative to tackle the issue. The trial is expected to last three months.
