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Are you were speaking of course about half an hour ago on this particular issue news now coming in that veltman has been found guilty on all of those charges as we had discussed a completely unsurprising verdict I had said it from the time it started and as the evidence rolled out
This would be a very very easy decision for this very hardworking jury I predicted and said and again there’s no science in this but there was a mountain of evidence here forget all the things the jury didn’t hear let’s just focus on what the jury did here just picking up
On a point of the planning and deliberation wearing body armor bought a truck with the front of it tailor made to smash into people and his excuse when he testified I have a feeling made 12 ordinary average jury juror eyes roll it was that unbelievable and just to bring
People into the courtroom if the jury does not believe the accused that can cause a whole bunch of problems in that accused defense it makes life much easier for a defense lawyer like me when your client says I want to testify and he’s not believed you can then point and say
Well look this guy testified for five days and the jury didn’t buy what he was selling you look at the manifesto you look at his actions you look at the amount of planning and deliberation that went into this this was not a half a day before this was significant planning and
Deliberation you then add in the terrorism Pathway to this which in my view made the jury decision much easier we may never know which pathway they took it’s entirely possible they took both Pathways that he did this and they found that he did this for an intent to
Intimidate a very specific uh portion of our population to cause Terror it’s an ordinary meaning of the word done for an ideological religious or political purpose his own words tell us that and then you add in the fact that the doctor a brilliant doctor mind you who testified on his behalf
I don’t think made his defense any stronger and in fact in some ways I thought weakened it then you add in the judge trying to ensure Mr veltman had the very fairest of Trials this is a jury that when they went out to deliberate I predicted that they would
Be back today right at the very latest and for Canadians wondering what the sentence will be or will this be a a difficult sentence for the judge no the sentencing is over it’s life in jail with no chance of parole or to apply for role for 25 years which in and of itself
As we talked about earlier raises a number of issues that many Canadians aren’t even aware of you know Ari this case also of course is groundbreaking and uh that’s a precedent it’s important to once again stress on the fact that the case is one of its kind first of its
Time in jury in Canada is hearing legal arguments on terrorism that related to white supremacy so it’s really important that the prosecutorial Services particularly the federal Crown Attorneys picked the perfect appropriate case to go down this road there have been prosecutions where that word has been overstretched where
It shouldn’t have applied it wouldn’t have added anything and it would have even made the jury’s decision more difficult or made them push back here when you look at Mr veltman’s two things his own actions and his own words this was the perfect case for the terrorism Provisions to be invoked why because
They applied on all fours quite perfectly but two they also gave a very clever Pathway to a conviction for first-degree murder if the jury accepted it was done for a religious ideological or political purpose and meant to intimidate even a casual viewer watching us now with a casual knowledge of the
Story would know that this was the express purpose Mr veltman did this so while he could come up in his defense with all sorts of excuses and my mommy wasn’t nice to me and I was raised in a strictly religious I’m being serious by the way he really went after his mother
That she wasn’t good to him this would not have been something that would be persuasive to a jury and how do I know this because a jury took a mere six hours on one of the most notorious cases in Canada to come to a verdict you just
Compare that to last week’s verdict of Peter nyard in a high-profile case where they were out for five days on just two counts this tells me from the beginning that this jury had no difficulty understanding the evidence and had no difficulty understanding the law Ari the next question everybody will ask is in
Terms of what happens next to veltman so what happens next and there will be some Pomp and Circumstance to this there will be Victim Impact statements he terrorized a family he ended a family there was one young child left with very serious injuries he terrorized an entire community in London
Let alone in Canada he was extraordinarily targeted in his Madness and criminality but Canadians should know and this is an important part of the story that for the purposes of parole ineligibility what that means in English is that everybody knows it’s life without parole for 25 years but 10
Years ago the rules would change were changed that if you took two three or four lives the judge could if the judge saw fit to make the parole ineligibility period longer 50 years for a second life 75 years for a third life that’s not in play anymore the Supreme Court
Unanimously came out and said to Canadians that’s cruel and unusual punishment so the sentence is and will be no matter what anybody says life in jail no possibility of parole for 25 years and in a approximately 23 24 25 years similar to the Paul Bernardo role
Stories we will be talking again in that time of whether Mr veltman should ever breathe the same air as you me and everybody watching us talking now one last question before I let you go Ari is the fact of course there is a possibility of parole like you said but
That’s like after 25 years or something but the possibility of an appeal to this particular verdict and whether or not it goes forward from there so a great question there’s always going to be the word appeal after a murder conviction it’s odd automatic on a murder so people
Watching this and if you hear and there’s a scrum where his defense Council say We’ll appeal Don’t Panic most appeals are unsuccessful only two three four% succeed but he has a right to have this looked at by a higher Court to make sure everything was done correctly but as somebody who does this
For a living I can tell you that her honor Justice pomerance bent over backwards and I mean that bent over backwards to keep certain things from the jury that would inflame them that would make them hate Mr veltman even more than they may already that may inflame their passions abortion doctors
Covid-19 theories all sorts of other actions he took that the judge kept from the jury to ensure that Mr veltman had a fighting chance at a fair trial so I don’t see any potential appeal issues uh being successful here and even in the Crown’s closing when the crown went a a
Little bit too far the judge immediately snapped that closed and said to the jury don’t listen to that last part that the crown said you must do as I told you so when a court because most appeals on a jury trial are not just the verdicts there did the judge instruct them
Correctly this is a verdict that in my view will stand the test of time all right we appreciate all those insights Ari goldkind thank you for joining us and as you break down the developments coming in from the court in winds Ontario
Defence lawyer Ari Goldkind breaks down why the guilty verdict was ‘unsurprising’ and discusses the ‘mountain of evidence’ against Veltman.
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Between this guy and Alek Minassian… sounds like Canada needs van control!