International student charged in Canada gender studies stabbings
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The accused is a former international student at Waterloo University in Canada.
PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO/FACEBOOK
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OTTAWA – A former international student at Waterloo University in Canada was charged on Thursday with a triple stabbing during a gender studies class on campus that police said was motivated by hate.
Waterloo police chief Mark Crowell told a media briefing that it was a “planned and targeted attack motivated by hate and related to gender expression and gender identity”.
The accused, he said, walked into a class on Wednesday carrying two large knives and briefly spoke to the 38-year-old professor before stabbing her.
Several students intervened, while others fled.
Two students – a 20-year-old female and a 19-year-old male – were stabbed in the melee and taken with their teacher to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
The suspect, who tried to also stab a third student, was arrested at the scene amid a massive police response.
He attempted to blend in as a victim leaving the room, but witnesses identified him to the police, said Mr Crowell.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the stabbings “absolutely despicable”.
“I strongly condemn this vile act,” he said in a Twitter message.
It is another reminder that Canada can never let misogynistic rhetoric escalate because “these words have real-life consequences”, he said.
Geovanny Villalba-Aleman, 24, originally from Ecuador, faces several counts of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and mischief.
He was not a member of the class that was targeted, but had recently studied at the university, according to police.
Over the past year, there have been several instances of protestors targeting LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) events in Canada, including clashes with participants at drag story readings to children.
In 2018, a man in a rented van mowed down pedestrians – targeting mostly women – in Toronto, killing 10 and injuring 16 in the city’s deadliest ever attack.
Another gender-related attack at a Canadian university in 1989 saw a man who claimed to be “fighting feminism” fatally shoot 14 female students and employees at Ecole Polytechnique, an engineering school, in Montreal. AFP
