‘Nothing will ever make it right’
Defence maintains man didn’t know van attack was wrong in moment
Judge to issue verdict today in Yonge Street van attack that killed 10 people,
UPDATES AT THESTAR.COM
On the afternoon of April 23, 2018, Alek Minassian “slammed the accelerator” of a rented van and sped onto a Yonge Street sidewalk directly at a group of pedestrians waiting at the intersection.
“There was no warning,” said the agreed statement of facts. “People were not prepared for such an attack.”
Over the next four minutes, Minassian deliberately drove into 26 people, killing eight women and two men and leaving carnage and trauma in his wake.
He has admitted to reserving a van and, weeks later, using it for his attack, leaving Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy to rule not on whether Minassian, 28, planned and carried out Toronto’s worst mass killing, but on if he is criminally responsible.
The verdict will be livestreamed on YouTube on Wednesday, starting at 10 a.m.
During a six-week trial held over Zoom late last year, Minassian’s lawyers argued he is not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder, specifically autism spectrum disorder.
It is the first time in Canada that autism spectrum disorder alone — with no co-occurring disorders — has been used as a basis for a not criminally responsible defence. The trial heard evidence that no autistic person is the same, and that the disorder can manifest in very different ways.
Molloy has to determine if Minassian’s manifestation of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) meets the criteria to be considered a mental disorder for the purpose of a not criminally responsible defence — the Crown has argued it does not.
If she decides it does, she would then determine whether he knew what he was doing was morally wrong.
Minassian repeatedly told psychiatrists that he was aware at the time of the attack that his actions were wrong and unjustifiable by society’s standards.
“What I did was morally wrong. And extremely devastating. And irreversible,” Minassian told defence psychiatrist Dr. Alexander Westphal in an interview.
“It is extremely wrong to kill people.”
The Crown argued Minassian clearly demonstrated in interviews with psychiatrists and through psychological testing the ability to morally reason and distinguish right from wrong. Crown psychiatrist Dr. Scott Woodside suggested that the extreme moral wrongfulness of Minassian’s actions was part of his stated motivation: a desire for infamy.
Minassian’s lawyer Boris Bytensky argued that Minassian’s ability to morally reason is impaired by his autism, which a defence psychiatrist testified made him unable to really understand how his actions affect other people. Minassian wasn’t able to “know” what he did was wrong, because he did not have the capacity to make a rational choice about his actions in the moment, Bytensky argued.
In closing remarks at the end of the trial, Molloy stressed that generalizations about autistic people and autism should not be made based on the evidence heard at the trial.
“The issue at trial is not whether people with ASD do not know right from wrong,” she said.
“The issue at this trial is whether the particular impact of ASD on this particular person at this particular point in time was such that he should be not criminally responsible for his actions.”
Even so, autistic people and advocacy organizations remain fearful that the case will perpetuate harmful misconceptions, though autism is not linked with violence and autistic people are more likely to be lawabiding and victims of crime.
“In the court of public opinion, autism is now on trial,” said writer Sarah Kurchak, who is autistic, in an interview with CBC’s Day 6.
“The debate about whether or not we have empathy. The debate about whether or not we’re inherently violent. The debate about whether or not we can apparently just get off or whatever crimes we commit (when) we’re usually more likely to be the victims of than the perpetrators in real life.”
Anita Szigeti, a prominent lawyer specializing in mental health law and co-author of the “Guide to Mental Disorder Law in Canadian Criminal Justice,” said the legal approach argued by the defence could somewhat push the boundaries of the not criminally responsible (NCR) test through exploring what it means to be able to make a rational choice.
“It’s not creating a new path to NCR, but just putting more flesh on the bones of it, fleshing it out more completely than we’ve seen in the case law,” she said.
“This is not a clear-cut case.” Historically, she said, NCR law has been focused on cases involving psychosis or specific delusions. But there are emerging areas of research looking at how, for example, an acquired brain injury can affect decisionmaking.
“The law evolves based on evolving science and the law has to be responsive to what the science tells us,” she said.
Minassian faces ten counts of first-degree murder for killing Ji Hun Kim and So He Chung, both 22; Anne Marie D’Amico, 30; Andrea Bradden, 33; Chul Min (Eddie) Kang, 45; Renuka Amarasingha, 45; Dorothy Sewell, 80; Geraldine (Gerry) Brady, 83; Munir Najjar, 85; and Betty Forsyth, 94. He faces an additional 16 counts of attempted murder, including for nearly killing Catherine Riddell.
Riddell said she is relieved the case is almost over though “nothing will ever make it right.”
She watched the entire trial and, in her view, Minassian should be found guilty.
“He understood exactly what he was doing,” she said. And she agreed with the Crown that whether or not he can feel empathy for the people he harmed shouldn’t make a difference — it’s not uncommon for mass killers.
Regardless of the verdict, Minassian likely faces a long time in an institution.
If Minassian were to be found not criminally responsible, he would be sent to a psychiatric hospital indefinitely.
If he is found guilty, he faces an automatic life sentence in prison. In that case, the only question for the court would be how long before he could apply for parole. One count of first-degree murder comes with an automatic parole ineligibility period of 25 years, and it would be up to the judge to determine how much longer that period should be.
A parents group advocating for Black students has launched a tool where school staff across Canada can report and track anti-Black racism.
Parents of Black Children (PoBC) created an online tool for educators and school board employees across Canada to anonymously report incidents of anti-Black racism that they have witnessed against students, colleagues, or experienced themselves.
“We want you to know what racism looks like when the doors are closed,” said board member Charlene Hines at a virtual press conference Tuesday. “We know it’s happening and we know it’s not being addressed.”
As an organization, PoBC frequently hears stories of racism, as shared by concerned parents, but that’s only a piece of the story.
“This only captures the racism that parents know about,” said co-founder Kearie Daniel. “It doesn’t capture the racist incidents that educators may see in their colleagues’ classrooms and never report. It doesn’t cover the racist comments (said) in the teachers’ lounge or over email.
“And it doesn’t cover the reprisals that Black teachers and their allies may face for standing up for Black students,” Daniel continued.
Founding member Claudette Rutherford is also a department head at the York Region District School Board, and can relate to the risk of speaking up.
“Even me coming here I understand the risk that it puts me at, but I feel like I don’t have a choice anymore,” said Rutherford, who has been teaching for 19 years.
PoBC has long demanded the collection of disaggregated, race-based data, which has not been fulfilled by the vast majority of school boards.
Earlier this month, the Toronto District School Board released its first human rights report, which covered 2018-2020 and revealed a prevalence of anti-Black racism, which was reported by teachers.
The TDSB created a new requirement that principals must report hate incidents in its own online portal. But TDSB spokesperson Shari SchwartzMaltz previously told the Star that she believes it is the only board currently collecting such information.
As stories are submitted, PoBC plans to release the anonymized stories publicly, to school board leadership and ministries of education. The organizers note that being independent from school boards is an asset.
In August 2020, PoBC held a protest for change in Ontario schools and made 10 demands, including data collection, hiring more Black teachers, an end to streaming in all grades and decolonizing curriculum. As an organization, PoBC has already started filling some of their requests itself. Co-founder Charline Grant is a system navigator, which helps guide and support parents dealing with racism and disputes within schools.
Members say they have not heard from the Ministry of Education.
The government has moved forward with is ending streaming in Grade 9 and other “racist, discriminatory” practices, announced in July 2020. On Monday, Ontario announced it would be investing $6 million over the next three years to support Black students through a student and family advocates initiative in Ottawa, Hamilton and the GTA.
In speaking about the data collection tool, Grant emphasized that it isn’t just data being collected, they are real “traumatic” experiences.
“We already know anti-Black racism exists and is rampant in our schools,” she said. “This is just to give everybody a window into what we’re experiencing.”