A Toronto man convicted of being a terrorist has apologized to the daughter of a woman he targeted at random and slashed to death with a sword during a misogyny-motivated murder in 2020.
“To the little girl I orphaned, I am sorry for taking your mother away and effectively destroying the rest of your childhood,” said the bearded young man on Thursday, reading from a handwritten statement on looseleaf paper in Toronto’s Ontario Superior Court.
The offender, who cannot be named because he was 17 at the time of his crime, was asked to account for his actions at a sentencing hearing. He haltingly delivered three minutes of remarks.
“I don’t exactly know how to explain away my actions that day. To be honest, I can’t,” he said, while facing friends and family members of 24-year-old Ashley Arzaga.
The single mother was slain by the offender while she was working as a receptionist at a Toronto massage parlour in February, 2020. The Toronto man has already admitted he attacked her because of his affiliation with incels – an online community that counsels its members to commit femicide and other acts of violence against women.
The man, 21, said he now renounces that mindset. “I do not hate women or anyone,” he said. “I’ve come to realize life is so much more than internet negativity.”
His case amounts to a historic prosecution. The young man pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder last year. In June, a related ruling in his case marked the first time a Canadian court has ruled that violence inspired by an ideological hatred of women meets the legal threshold of terrorism.
The online community of incels, or involuntary celibates, claim to be unable to find sexual partners. Its members blame women for this, and their discussions often veer into misogyny and violence.
The sentencing hearing left both the Crown and defence lawyers emotional as they recounted circumstances of the violent crimes.
Prosecutor Chikeziri Igwe said the Crown is seeking a life sentence. He stressed that the offender spent months planning an attack to instill fear in women before launching into violence by using a 17-inch sword in a “brutal, horrific and savage” attack.
“He did not act on a whim,” Mr. Igwe told the court, saying that evidence showed the man had spent months online researching incel ideology.
Defence lawyer Monte MacGregor urged a much lighter sentence, one that would amount to only a few more years in jail. He painted a picture of an offender who lashed out after growing up as a latchkey teenager with limited intellect and a variety of mental-health disorders.
“He lived virtually alone in the basement of his father’s house,” said Mr. MacGregor. Calling his client “friendless” and “susceptible and weak,” he noted neither of the young man’s parents attended the sentencing proceeding.
The range of potential sentences is large. The Crown wants to sentence the accused as an adult, meaning an automatic life sentence without eligibility for parole until he serves the equivalent of 10 years in prison.
The defence argues he should be sentenced as a youth, meaning a maximum 10 years in prison with early release provisions and credit for time served.
The offender has also been convicted of attempted murder because the 2020 attack was thwarted by a second victim in the massage parlour who was injured as she wrestled the sword away from the attacker.
The woman appeared in court Thursday to face him. “I’m not a victim,” she told the court. “I’m a survivor.”
Prosecutors read victim-impact statements from family members of Ms. Arzaga.
“The most emotionally draining part of everything is watching my niece celebrate Mother’s Day at the cemetery,” wrote one of the slain woman’s sisters. Another sister wrote that “hearing her daughter call every night asking for her mom, and telling her her mom isn’t coming home, broke my heart.”
The woman’s siblings were not identified in court. A publication ban covers the name of the second victim.
Justice Suhail Akhtar has reserved his sentencing decision until Nov. 28.
Colin Freeze