{"id":17815,"date":"2020-11-10T16:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T21:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=17815"},"modified":"2020-11-10T16:00:06","modified_gmt":"2020-11-10T21:00:06","slug":"toronto-van-attack-incel-killer-minassian-pleads-not-criminally-responsible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2020\/11\/10\/toronto-van-attack-incel-killer-minassian-pleads-not-criminally-responsible\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto van attack: &#8216;Incel&#8217; killer Minassian pleads not criminally responsible"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p><b class=\"css-14iz86j-BoldText e5tfeyi0\">A Canadian man who killed 10 people by ploughing a van into pedestrians in Toronto has pleaded &#8220;not criminally responsible&#8221; at the start of his trial.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>Alek Minassian faces 10 charges of murder and 16 of attempted murder.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>The 28-year-old has been linked to the misogynistic &#8220;incel&#8221; movement, a mostly online group of young men who blame their lack of sexual activity on women.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>He has admitted the 2018 attack, but his lawyers argue he is not mentally fit to be held criminally responsible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>His mother has said he has Asperger&#8217;s syndrome &#8211; a type of autism that can make it difficult to understand non-verbal social cues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>Mr Minassian&#8217;s trial is being held by videoconference before a judge only, not a jury, and is expected to last about four weeks. It was supposed to start earlier this year but was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>The trial is being live-streamed and the accused will appear from prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"unordered-list-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<div class=\"css-1pzprxn-BulletListContainer e5tfeyi3\">\n<ul role=\"list\">\n<li><a class=\"css-yidnqd-InlineLink e1no5rhv0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-43877137\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Toronto van attack: Who is the suspect?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"css-yidnqd-InlineLink e1no5rhv0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-43927786\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Victims of Toronto van attack<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"css-yidnqd-InlineLink e1no5rhv0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/blogs-trending-43881931\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">What is an &#8220;incel&#8221;?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m entering a plea of not criminally responsible on all counts,&#8221; Mr Minassian told the Ontario Superior Court on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>In order for him to not be found criminally responsible, his lawyers will have to prove he has a mental illness that kept him from understanding either what he was doing, or that what he was doing was wrong.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>Eyewitnesses described seeing a white van mount the pavement on Toronto&#8217;s busy Yonge Street on 23 April 2018 and mow down pedestrians, who ranged in age from 22 to 94.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>Mr Minassian was arrested shortly after crashing his van near the scene of the attack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>After being arrested, the suspect told police he was angry at women and had planned the attack as retribution for years of being rejected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>He had praised Elliot Rodger, who killed six people in a 2014 rampage in California and also identified as part of the &#8220;incel&#8221; movement, online.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>&#8220;The incel rebellion has already begun,&#8221; Mr Minassian posted on Facebook minutes before the attack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i81\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>The term &#8220;incel&#8221; is short for &#8220;involuntary celibate&#8221; and refers to a now-banned group on the discussion site Reddit, where young men discussed their lack of sexual activity and attractiveness to women &#8211; often blaming women for the problem and advocating misogyny and violence.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-us-canada-54895219\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">A Canadian man who killed 10 people by ploughing a van into pedestrians in Toronto has pleaded &#8220;not criminally responsible&#8221; at the start of his trial. Alek Minassian faces 10 charges of murder and 16 <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2020\/11\/10\/toronto-van-attack-incel-killer-minassian-pleads-not-criminally-responsible\/\" title=\"Toronto van attack: &#8216;Incel&#8217; killer Minassian pleads not criminally responsible\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,109,2],"tags":[5075,7430,45,258,257,7431],"class_list":{"0":"post-17815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"category-headline","9":"category-news","10":"tag-alek-minassian","11":"tag-aspergers-syndrome","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-ontario-superior-court","14":"tag-toronto","15":"tag-van-attack","16":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17816,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17815\/revisions\/17816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}