OTTAWA: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday promised to take more action to dismantle far-right groups after a hate-motivated attack that killed four members of a Muslim family in the city of London, Ontario.

“This was a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred, in the heart of one of our communities,” Trudeau said in the House of Commons after observing a moment of silence.

The family, killed on Sunday when a pickup truck jumped the curb and ran them over, were deliberately targeted because of their religion, Canadian police said.

“We’ll continue to fight hate online and offline... (including) taking more action to dismantle far-right hate groups, like we did with the Proud Boys by adding them to Canada’s terror listing,” said Trudeau, who was due to attend a vigil outside a London Mosque for the victims.

Police in London arrested Nathaniel Veltman, 20, in a parking lot about 500 metres from the London Mosque. He was wearing a body-armour type of vest.

Veltman, who is white, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder. Authorities are reviewing the possibility of terrorism charges.

The attack was the worst against Canadian Muslims since a man gunned down six members of a Quebec City mosque in 2017. London Mayor Ed Holder said it was the worst mass murder in his city’s history.

In September 2020, Mohammed Aslam Zafis, a Muslim, was stabbed to death outside a Toronto mosque. Police charged a 34-year-old man with murder.

In February, Canada designated the far-right Proud Boys group a terrorist entity, saying it posed an active security threat after the January assault on the US Capitol in Washington.

Although the group has never mounted an attack in Canada, officials said domestic intelligence forces have become increasingly worried about it.

Police said Veltman, a resident of London, did not know the victims.

Detective Supt Paul Waight said London police were working with federal police and prosecutors to see about potential terrorism charges. He declined to detail evidence pointing to a possible hate crime, but said the attack was planned.

“We believe the victims were targeted because of their Islamic faith,” Police Chief Stephen Williams said. “There is no tolerance in this community… who are motivated by hate target others with violence.”

One woman who witnessed the aftermath of the deadly crash said she couldn’t stop thinking about the victims. Paige Martin said she was stopped at a red light around 8:30pm when a large pickup roared past her. She said her car shook from the force.

“I was shaken up, thinking it was an erratic driver,” Martin said. Minutes later, she said, she came upon a gruesome, chaotic scene at an intersection near her home, with first responders running to help, a police officer performing chest compressions on one person and three other people lying on the ground.

A few dozen people stood on the sidewalk and several drivers got out of their cars to help. “I can’t get the sound of the screams out of my head,” Martin said.

From her apartment, Martin said she could see the scene and watched an official drape a sheet over one body about midnight. “My heart is just so broken for them,” she said.

Zahid Khan, a family friend, said the three generations among the dead were a grandmother, father, mother and teenage daughter. The family had migrated from Pakistan 14 years ago and were dedicated, decent and generous members of the London Mosque, he said.

“They were just out for their walk that they would go out for every day,” Khan said through tears near the site of the crash.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims said Muslims in Canada have become all too familiar with the violence of Islamophobia. “This is a terrorist attack on Canadian soil, and should be treated as such,” council head Mustafa Farooq said.

Nawaz Tahir, a London lawyer and Muslim community leader, said, “We must confront and stamp out Islamophobia and Islamic violence not tomorrow, today, for the sake of our children, our family, our communities.”

The city’s mayor said flags would be lowered for three days in London, which he said had 30,000 to 40,000 Muslims among its more than 400,000 residents.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2021