Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the June 28 stabbings of a professor and two students in a gender-studies class at the University of Waterloo after police revealed the motive was hate-related, calling it "heinous violence," per The Advocate.
Geovanny Villalba-Aleman was arrested and charged with stabbing Professor Katy Fulfer, a male student and a female student. Waterloo Regional Police Chief Mark Crowell said at a press conference that Villalba-Aleman admitted to investigators his goal was to "purposefully target the subject matter of gender identity" and "make a statement." The victims' injuries are non-life-threatening.
In a statement Windy City Times obtained, the university said, "We are horrified, saddened, and outraged by the attack on our campus community … in which a professor and two students were stabbed during a Gender Issues class. Gender Issues is a cross-listed class in Philosophy and in the Gender and Social Justice (GSJ) program.
"Our thoughts are with our colleague and students who were injured, the students in the class who witnessed the attack, our students in Gender and Social Justice and Philosophy, and the entire University of Waterloo community. We stand in solidarity with the many teachers and scholars across the world whose ideas expose them to violence and hate. We are committed to continuing to teach and research topics in gender, social justice, and beyond."
Over the past year, protesters have targeted LGBTQ+ events in Canada, showing up and sometimes clashing with participants at events like drag story readings to children, Reuters noted. Trudeau and Jagmeet Singhwho leads the smaller New Democrats party supporting his governmenthave condemned these attacks.
Andrew Davis