Four members of a Muslim family were murdered in a premeditated truck attack in London, Ontario, during an evening walk on June 6. The four members of the family – Salman Afzaal 46, his wife Madiha Salman 44, their daughter Yumna 15, and Salman Afzaal’s mother 74 were killed, and the couple’s nine-year-old son Fayez was critically injured because of their Muslim faith. Canadian police told reporters that a man in a black pickup drove up on a curb and mowed down a family standing on the sidewalk and waiting to cross a busy suburban road.
The suspected attacker was publicly identified as Nathaniel Veltman, 20, when he was charged with four counts of first-degree, or premeditated, murder and one count of attempted murder. The police said that they were consulting the attorney general and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police about possible terrorism charges.
Neighbours in the downtown apartment where Veltman lives, reportedly told the London Free Press that there were frequent disputes over noise coming from his unit, particularly late at night.
The police have said the attack was motivated by hate. “There is evidence that this was a planned, premeditated act and that the family was targeted because of their Muslim faith,” said Detective Superintendent Paul Waight of the London Police at a news conference.
The driver sped away at a high speed, running through several red lights before being stopped and arrested in a shopping mall parking lot a little more than four miles away. The police said he was wearing “body armour-type vest” when he was arrested “without incident” in the car park.
This sad and tragic event underscores the reality of anti-Muslim hatred. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denounced the killing as a “terrorist attack.” Trudeau called the attack a “brutal, cowardly, brazen act of violence.” “This killing was no accident,” he said. “This was a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred, in the heart of one of our communities.”
Mayor Ed Holder of London, which is midway between Detroit and Toronto, called it “an act of mass murder perpetrated against Muslims, against Londoners and rooted in unspeakable hatred.”
Canadian opposition leader Jagmeet Singh has called on the politicians to address hate resulting in violence against Muslims, and not to use Islamophobia for divisive politics to gain votes. The Leader of the New Democratic Party further went on to say that how many more families will be killed before we did something. He added, “Everyone should feel safe to be who they are. We will wear our hijabs and our turbans with pride. We will not let terror win and we will stand with #OurLondonFamily.”
ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) has condemned this recent act of hate and terrorism against the Muslim community. “We pray for the deceased and their loved ones. May Allah have mercy on all of them,” it said.
The previous year, a man walked into a mosque in Quebec City and started shooting, killing six people and wounding eight. While Canadian officials described those events as terrorist attacks, both cases were ultimately prosecuted as murders.
“It’s very rare to see actual terrorism charges brought because it ups the burden on the prosecutor without really adding anything in terms of sentence,” said Leah West, a professor who specialises in counterterrorism and national security law at Carleton University in Ottawa. She added that convictions on both first-degree murder and serious terrorism charges have the same sentence, life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
But Nadia Hasan, the chief operating officer of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said that terrorism charges should be pursued.
“We need to be able to send a message to the Muslim community that these types of incidents, and unfortunately I have to use the plural there, are taken seriously and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” she said.
The killings echoed a rampage in Toronto in 2018 in which a man used a rental van to mow down pedestrians on sidewalks there, killing 10 people and severely injuring 16.
Last September, a volunteer caretaker was fatally stabbed outside of a Toronto mosque. Canadian Anti-Hate Network, an organisation that monitors hate groups in the country, said that the man accused of the killing had widely posted neo-Nazi statements online.
In 2019, the most recent year for which statistics were available, the police reported 1,946 hate crimes in Canada. While there were fewer reported hate crimes targeting religion that year, those targeting Muslims rose by 9 per cent from 2018.
Canada is known for its openness to immigration and its ethnic diversity, and the Muslim community in London dates back to the turn of the 20th century and is particularly prominent. Mr. Holder, the mayor, said that Arabic is the second most common language in the city and about 10 per cent of the city’s 405,000 residents form its Muslim community.
“London would be unrecognisable if the Muslim community weren’t there,” Ms. Hasan said. “We all need to collectively take a step back and face the reality that we live in a country where a man can be so deeply influenced by Islamophobia and so deeply influenced by hate that he would get in his car and decide that today is the day I’m going to go and kill Muslims.”
Several hundred mourners joined a public funeral service on June 12 to bid farewell to four members of the Canadian Muslim family who were killed. The hour-long ceremony started after the four coffins draped in Canadian flags rolled into the compound of the Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario, and ended with prayers and condolences offered by religious and community leaders. The funeral procession later proceeded for a private burial.