TORONTO – The man responsible for the deadly van attack in Toronto in 2018 was sentenced to life in prison without any possibility of release for 25 years.
	Alec Minassian was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for 15 attempted murders, which are to be built at the same time.
	He was found guilty last year of 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder.
	Eight women and two men died on April 23, 2018, when Minassian, bent on defamation, angry with women who did not sleep with him and radicalized on the Internet, deliberately drove a rented van on a busy sidewalk.
	Another woman died more than three years later from injuries she suffered that day.
	The court today heard dozens of statements of influence of emotional victims from those deeply affected by the attack.
	More follows … 
	(Older story follows below 🙂
	A painting of a boy with the sun shining on him and his mother brought tears to his eyes in a Toronto courtroom Monday as victims spoke of the impact of the deadly van attack on the city.
	The nine-year-old boy, Diyon, lost his mother, Renuka Amarasinghe, on April 23, 2018. He did not submit any words as part of his victim impact statement – only the plan. 
	“It’s wonderful,” said Judge Anne Molloy, who wiped away a few tears in a crowded courtroom filled with dozens of victims and their families.
	Eight women and two men died that day when a 25-year-old man crouched down in defamation, angered by women who did not sleep with him and radicalized on the Internet, deliberately driving a rented van onto a busy sidewalk. 
	Another woman died more than three years later from injuries she suffered that day.
	Molloy found Alek Minassian guilty last year of 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder.  On Monday, he remained silent throughout the hearing of his sentence, sitting in a gray suit, bald, staring at him most of the time on the floor. 
	The hearing was the first opportunity for the victims and their families to confront the killer in person after his trial and verdict only by the judge, which took place via teleconference during the pandemic.
	Haneen Najjar, whose father died in the attack, said she immigrated to Canada in 2017 with her brother, leaving her parents behind in Jordan.  He was worried that something would happen to them while they were so far away.
	“I did not know that this fear would come true here in Toronto, thousands of miles away from home and in such a horrible and destructive way,” he said.
	Her father, Munir Najjar, died that day at the age of 85.  He was in town with his wife to visit the children and their grandchildren, he said.
	She said her 15-year-old son found out that his grandfather had died after recognizing a lone shoe on the street near a covered body.
	“Can one imagine the impact of such a catastrophe on a child?”  she said in tears.
	Robert Forsyth spoke in court about his aunt, Betty Forsyth, whom he called a “walking library” of family information.
	“Her presence and many untold stories are lost forever,” he said, his voice catching as he looked at Minassian in the prisoner’s box.
	Robert Anderson described a procession of debilitating injuries in his victim’s impact statement, which was read by the Crown’s lawyer.  He spent four weeks in the ICU, suffered a brain haemorrhage, an injured liver that required surgery and a severed spleen that needed to be removed.
	“I continue my normal daily activities but I no longer ride the bike due to dizziness,” he wrote.  “My short-term memory continues to suffer from head injuries.”
	Jun Seok Park said her family had since denied her because the accident had cost her and her family all their money.
	He said he had been in a coma in the hospital for more than a month and was living with permanent brain damage, hearing loss and vision problems.
	“I have to worry about having a seizure and a stroke every day until I die from this brain injury from this truck attack,” he wrote.
	She is unable to work due to her injuries and can only get out of bed in the afternoon and evening.  Park said her family had to come from Korea to Canada to help her for 19 months.
	“Now, they have finally broken up with me and they no longer have contact with me because they believe I am the one who ruined their lives financially,” Park wrote.
	Ra So recalled walking with her boyfriend, So He Chung, on the corner of Yonge Street and Finch Avenue on the day of the attack.  The couple decided to walk to the library instead of going due to the unusually hot weather.
	Then the attack began.  She and her friend were beaten.  She looked around and saw bodies and blood everywhere.  When she looked down, she saw blood covering her own body.
	“Basically all the bones in my face broke into pieces except my forehead,” he wrote.  She saw her boyfriend, who was unconscious but not bleeding.
	So he thought Chung was fine.  When she woke up, no one told her what happened to her friend.  Days later, So was taken to a room with a social worker, her parents and friends to tell her that Chung was dead.
	“I remember crying and screaming my denial after her death,” she wrote.
	Three women who witnessed the attack also spoke about their problems from that day.
	Janet Jiang cried as she talked about doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation to a woman who was beaten and watched her die.  Jiang said she has been living in doubt about herself ever since.
	“I repeat that day thousands of times, I wonder if I could have done things differently and if he would still be here today,” he said.
	The judge’s voice broke several times as he thanked those who spoke.
	“I admire your courage. I’m so sorry it happened to you,” Molloy told Jiang.
	Betty Forsyth, Ji Hun Kim, So He Chung, Geraldine Brady, Chul Min Kang, Anne Marie D’Amico, Munir Najjar, Dorothy Sewell, Andrea Bradden, Beutis Renuka Amarasingha and Amaresh Tesfamariam were killed in the attack.
	The first-degree murder carries an automatic sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of applying for release from prison for 25 years.
	The Crown and the defense submitted a joint submission recognizing Tesfamariam, who died more than three years later from injuries sustained in the attack.  They sentenced her to life in prison for her death, which initially emerged as an assassination attempt as she was still alive during the trial.
	They also recommended 20 years for each attempted murder.
	This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 13, 2022.