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The Canadian press
Accused in Toronto, the van attack raises a non-criminally responsible defense
TORONTO – The man who killed 10 people and injured 16 others after driving a van along a busy Toronto sidewalk pleaded not guilty at the start of today’s trial. Alek Minassian, of Richmond Hill, Ontario, asks the court to find him not criminally responsible for his actions. Minassian, 28, faces 10 counts of first degree murder and 16 cases of attempted murder. He admitted in court that he planned and conducted the attack on April 23, 2018. The hearing judge said the trial will focus on Minassian’s state of mind at the time. Minassian told a detective a few hours after the incident that he carried out the attack as a punishment against society because he was a lonely virgin who believed that women would not have sex with him. In a police interview that was made public, Minassian told the detective that he found solace in an online community for so-called “incels,” men who were unwittingly celibate. Minassian explained to the detective that incels were at the bottom of society, under the so-called Chads, who are alpha males who sleep with women, known as Staceys. He said the Chads had to be killed to force the Staceys to have sex with men like him, the incels. A mass attack would create confusion in the world and allow the incels to reorganize the world order and come out victorious, he told the detective. Minassian’s trial takes place before a judge, Judge Anne Molloy, with no jury, a rarity for first degree murder trials. The defense tried to move the case from Toronto, arguing that Minassian would not receive a fair trial with a jury of locals. After the negotiations, all parties agreed to proceed through a judge alone, thus maintaining the trial in Toronto. The trial was supposed to begin in February, but difficulties in obtaining Minassian’s medical and psychological records drove him to April. The pandemic then closed the courts, prompting the trial to November. With the recent COVID-19 restrictions in place during the second wave of the pandemic, the court has opted for a trial on Zoom video conferencing software. The trial will not be available to the public online, but anyone can watch a broadcast of the trial in select rooms at the Metro Toronto convention center. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on November 10, 2020. Liam Casey, The Canadian Press
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