Man who killed 4 members of Muslim family appealing convictions on 3 grounds: doc

Justice Renee Pomerance, left to right, Nathaniel Veltman, and Crown Prosecutor Kim Johnson are seen as the verdict is read in the Superior Court of Justice in Windsor, Ont., in a courtroom sketch made on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Alexandra Newbould

A court document shows a man convicted of murdering four members of a Muslim family and seriously injuring another in what the judge deemed to be an act of terrorism is appealing his convictions on three grounds.

A lawyer representing Nathaniel Veltman filed a new notice of appeal in February, nearly a year after Veltman filed an initial inmate notice of appeal.

The document says Veltman is challenging his convictions and seeking a new trial on grounds that the trial judge erred in admitting the “ideological evidence,” and in admitting his statements to police, which it says were obtained in breach of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

It also argues the trial judge, Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance, erred in dismissing a defence application for mistrial.

Veltman was sentenced in February 2024 to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years after he was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for hitting the Afzaal family with his truck on June 6, 2021, while they were out for a walk in London, Ont.

Forty-six-year-old Salman Afzaal; his 44-year-old wife, Madiha Salman; their 15-year-old daughter, Yumna; and her 74-year-old grandmother, Talat Afzaal were killed in the attack. The couple’s nine-year-old son was seriously hurt but survived.

Pomerance ruled the murders, committed by a self-described white nationalist, were an act of terrorism. The case was the first time Canada’s terrorism laws were put before a jury in a first-degree murder trial.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6, 2025

The Canadian Press