TORONTO — The latest news on the vehicle attack in London, Ont., that killed four members of a Muslim family and seriously injured a nine-year-old boy on Sunday (all times eastern):
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8:12 p.m.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised Canadian Muslims action against Islamophobia.
Trudeau has told the vigil for the victims of Sunday’s attack there were are words to ease the grief.
But he says the country stands with the community and will stand against hate and racism.
Discrimination, he says, has no place in Canada.
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7:45 p.m.
A huge crowd is attending a vigil in London, Ont., for the four Muslim family members a motorist deliberately mowed down.
Some passed out in the heat as speakers spoke of the trauma inflicted on the Muslim community.
Speakers also said they would not be cowed by Islamophobia.
The province specially eased pandemic restrictions to allow the gathering.
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4:30 p.m.
The accused in the attack on the Muslim family worked part time at an egg farm in nearby Strathroy, Ont.
The CEO of Gray Ridge Eggs Inc., William Gray, gave no details of what Nathaniel Veltman did at the company.
Gray says they were “shocked and saddened” by the attack.
He also expressed sympathies with the victims’ relatives and Muslim community.
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12:15 p.m.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has told the House of Commons the attack against the Muslim family in London, Ont., was an act of terrorism,
Opening with the traditional Arabic greeting, “Peace be upon you,” Trudeau said the family was simply trying to get fresh air when they were run down on Sunday evening.
He says their lives were taken in a “brutal, cowardly, and brazen act of violence.”
Trudeau plans to attend a vigil for the victims in London this evening.
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11:45 a.m.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the attack on a Muslim family in London, Ontario was “nothing short of a terrorist attack.”
Ford is offering condolences to the family and the Muslim community.
He says he has asked the local medical officer to grant an exemption to public health gathering rules so people can assemble for a vigil in London tonight.
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11: 15 a.m.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford are expected to attend a vigil for five members of a Muslim family who police say were the victims of a deliberate attack.
The vigil will be held outside the London Muslim Mosque this evening.
Ford says Sunday’s attack — in which four people died and a nine-year-old boy was injured — has left the province in mourning.
As a result, he says all government events are cancelled today to allow the family and community to grieve.
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7:30 a.m.
Pakistan’s prime minister is denouncing a vehicle attack that killed four members of a Muslim family in London, Ont., as an act of terror rooted in Islamophobia.
Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned Sunday’s attack on Twitter, as did Pakistan’s foreign affairs minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Khan says the incident reveals the growing Islamophobia in western countries.
He says Islamophobia must be countered “holistically” by the international community.
Friends of the victims say the family was well known within the London Pakistani-Muslim community.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2021.
The Canadian Press