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Join on Telegram Rabat – A man deliberately drove over a Muslim family, killing four people and seriously injuring a nine-year-old boy.
The man ran over the family on Sunday evening in the city of London, 200 kilometers southwest of Toronto.
Al Jazeera reported that the victims were a 15-year-old girl, two women aged 77 and 44, and a 45-year-old man.
The nine-year-old boy, who was seriously injured, is still in the hospital for recovery.
Police arrested the driver, a 20-year-old. Identified as Nathaniel Veltman, the suspect has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and of attempted murder, the police said in a statement.
Police arrested the man in a mall parking lot. They said the attack was motivated by “hate.”
“There is evidence that this was a planned, premeditated act, motivated by hate,” Detective Superintendent Paul Weight of the London Police Department said.
He also believes that the victims were targeted because of their Islamic faith.
The victims are reportedly from Pakistan and immigrated to Canada 14 years ago.
International media described the attack as the worst of its kind against Canadian Muslims since an armed man killed six members of a mosque in Quebec City in 2017.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau commented on the attack, saying he was “horrified by the news.”
“Islamophobia has no place in any of our communities. This hate is insidious and despicable – and it must stop,” he said.
A 2020 survey by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) shows that 46% of Canadians “have an unfavorable view of Islam.”
According to the survey, “fewer than half” of Canada’s populations would find it “acceptable for one of their children to marry a Muslim.”
The same survey said that 56% of Canadians believe that Muslims can “only be trusted a little or not at all.”
