Killer of London, Ont., Muslim family appeals convictions, challenging use of manifesto at trial [Video]

Warning: This story contains distressing details.

A London, Ont., man convicted of killing four members of a Muslim family and severely injuring a fifth member in a hate-motivated attack four years ago is appealing on three grounds, including that the judge should not have allowed the jury to consider his white nationalist manifesto. 

A Windsor jury found Nathaniel Veltman guilty in November 2023 of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. Three months later, then Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance ruled his actions amounted to a “textbook case” of terrorism as defined under Canadian law. He was sentenced in January 2024.

Friday’s news of the appeal comes on the fourth anniversary of the killing of Yumnah Afzaal, 15, her parents — Madiha Salman, 44, an engineer, and Salman Afzaal, 46, a physiotherapist — and family matriarch Talat Afzaal, 74, a teacher and artist. The youngest family member, a boy, survived.

Veltman drove his pickup truck into the family as they were taking …