Canada stabbing suspect targeted gender studies class, police say
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A stabbing attack during a gender studies class at a Canadian university this week was a “hate-motivated incident,” according to police. Geovanny Villalba-Aleman, a 24-year-old international student, was charged Thursday for the attack at the University of Waterloo in Ontario on Wednesday afternoon. The assault left three wounded with “serious but non-life-threatening injuries,” police said in a statement Thursday.
“Investigators believe this was a hate-motivated incident related to gender expression and gender identity,” the statement said.
The “planned and targeted” attack was against the 2SLGBTQ+ community at large, Waterloo Police Chief Mark Crowell said at a news conference, using an acronym that includes “2S” or “Two Spirit,” a term for an Indigenous North American person with a third gender role.
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Villalba-Aleman, who was not a member of the gender studies class, was arrested in Hagey Hall, the building where the assault took place. Police said he was wielding two large knives. Katy Fulfer, the professor teaching the class, as well as two students aged 19 and 20 were attacked.
Some of the 40 or so students in the class threw objects and chairs at the attacker in an attempt to stop him, Crowell said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday on Twitter that he condemned the “vile act” and its “absolutely despicable” motive.
“It is another reminder that we can never let misogynistic, anti-2SLGBTQI+ rhetoric escalate — because these words have real-life consequences,” he said.
James W.E. Rush, the University of Waterloo provost, said in a statement that the school was “deeply saddened and outraged by this horrific act,” and that support was available to all students.
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The university flew the Two Spirit flag alongside the rainbow Pride flag for the first time at the campus’s main entrance during Pride Month this June.
University president Vivek Goel said on Twitter that both flags would be flown until the end of July as a sign of support for affected students.
In a sign of #UWaterloo’s continued support to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community members disproportionately impacted by the hate-motivated violence, we will continue to fly our Pride and Two-Spirit flags until the end of July. 3/6 pic.twitter.com/oOhChxQwLA — Vivek Goel (@UWaterlooPres) June 29, 2023
“That this hate-filled attack due to gender expression and identity happened at the end of Pride Month is even more painful,” Goel said.
A recent University of Waterloo survey found that 26 percent of its students did not identify as heterosexual. The class targeted in the attack aimed to examine the construction of gender in the history of philosophy.
Villalba-Aleman, who had recently graduated, was charged with three counts of aggravated assault, four counts of assault with a weapon and two counts of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
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Source: The Washington Post
