Convicted killer of Muslim family in London, Ont., terror case is seeking an appeal, lawyer says
Nathaniel Veltman got life in prison in what judge called a 'textbook' case of terrorism
Warning: This story contains disturbing details.
The 23-year-old man convicted of murder in the 2021 attack on a Muslim family in London, Ont. — in what the judge called a "textbook" case of terrorism — is seeking to appeal his convictions, his lawyer says.
Word of the appeal move comes less than two months after Nathaniel Veltman was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years in the June 6, 2021, attack. It left four members of the Afzaal family dead and a boy, who was nine years old at the time, injured and orphaned.
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.
Veltman was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in November following a 10-week jury trial in Windsor. His sentencing hearings, in London, were held earlier this year.
Defence lawyer Christopher Hicks said Monday his client has filed an inmate notice of appeal with the court to extend his appeal deadline past 30 days and that a solicitor's notice of appeal will be filed within a month or two.
A notice of appeal has to be approved by a court in order for it to proceed.
"Why would we want to retrial? Well, we think, first of all, we think he was wrongfully convicted," Hicks told CBC News.
Lawyer outlines reasons for appeal attempt
Hicks believes they have "very arguable grounds" for an appeal, including that a statement Veltman gave to investigators shouldn't have been admitted to trial, and Crown prosecutors addressed jurors in a way that was "unfair and prejudicial."
"It was ongoing until objection was made by the trial judge, so [Peter] Ketcheson and I are very interested in that as well," he said, referring to the convicted man's other lawyer.
"It takes about a year to two years to get an appeal heard in the Court of Appeal, so it'll take that long. If we are successful, there are two possible outcomes from an appeal, but the most likely one here, the only likely one, is a new trial."
The Afzaals were out for an evening walk in the area of Hyde Park and South Carriage roads when they were struck by a pickup truck driven by Veltman, according to an agreed statement of facts from the trial.
At a sentencing hearing in February, Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance told the court that his actions on that day constituted terrorist activity and she refused to refer to the convicted killer by his name. The case marked the first time terror charges were considered under Canadian law against someone following a white nationalist ideology.
The Crown had argued Veltman was motivated by political, ideological or religious ideas when he drove his truck into the family and that he had targeted the Afzaals because of their Muslim faith.
The defence lawyers argued their client didn't intend to kill the family and made a case for him to be convicted of manslaughter instead.
'Much work to be done to address hatred'
After the guilty verdict was handed down, Tabinda Bukhari, Madiha Salman's mother, told reporters the attack wasn't just a crime against the Muslim community, but "rather an attack against the safety and security of all Canadians."
"This trial and verdict are a reminder there is still much work to be done to address hatred in all forms that lives in our communities," Bukhari said.
During the sentencing hearing in January, the convicted man told court he couldn't "undo this pain and suffering. I cannot turn back time. ... I plan to take every opportunity available to me to better myself."
"Over the course of the days, months and years following June 6, I have not fully grasped but I have seen the extent of the pain and suffering that my actions have caused."
Retraumatization is very real and would be in play again if ... a year and a half, two years from now, we're going through a second trial.- Nawaz Tahir, lawyer and member of Hikma
That apology makes news of the appeal surprising to Nawaz Tahir, a London lawyer and a member of Hikma, a London-based Muslim advocacy group.
Tahir said it was believed the sentencing decision would finally bring some legal closure for the family, and his heart aches for the relatives who may have to go through the trial all over again.
"You think you've processed something, and then all of a sudden, two years later, you're reliving things and going through things in a lot more detail and hearing things that you never thought you'd hear," he said of the initial trial.
"Retraumatization is very real and would be in play again if ... a year and a half, two years from now, we're going through a second trial."
Just over a month after the attack, the National Council of Canadian Muslims issued 60 policy recommendations in advance of a national summit on Islamophobia, aimed at addressing hate and racism in Canada.
As the three-year anniversary of the attack approaches, Tahir said, many of the recommendations remain unfulfilled.
"Certainly the City of London has come through with a comprehensive plan to combat Islamophobia, but provincially and federally, the response has been lacking."
A private member's bill, the Our London Family Act, was tabled in the Ontario Legislature in 2022, but died on the order paper when that year's election was called.
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With files from Kate Dubinski