Gender Studies Class Stabbings Condemned by Trudeau

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the recent stabbing of a university professor and two students in a gender studies class after police revealed the motive was hate-related.

Geovanny Villalba-Aleman, 24, was arrested and charged with stabbing Professor Katy Fulfer, 38, a 20-year-old male student, and a 19-year-old female student at the University of Waterloo on Wednesday. Waterloo Regional Police Chief Mark Crowell said at a press conference yesterday Villalba-Aleman, an international student, entered the class and engaged in conversation with the professor “before attacking her with two large knives without provocation” and then attacking two students who were fleeing. Police quickly captured Villalba-Aleman who was found hiding on campus.

Crowell also said Villalba-Aleman admitted to investigators his goal was to “purposefully target the subject matter of gender identity” and “make a statement.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was quick to issue a statement upon learning of Villalba-Aleman’s alleged motives.

“I want to make this clear: This heinous violence, and the hate that fueled it, have no place in our country,” Trudeau wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. “We must – and we will – keep working to build a Canada where everyone is welcome to be who they are, to study what they want, and to be safe from violence.”

Police did not provide the identity of Professor Fulfer, but her name was revealed in a post to Twitter by Vivek Goel, the University of Waterloo president.

“Yesterday, Professor Katy Fulfer and two students in her Gender Studies course were attacked because they were exploring society and gender,” Vivek wrote. “That this hate-filled attack due to gender expression and identity happened at the end of Pride Month is even more painful.”

Villalba-Aleman was officially charged with three counts of aggravated assault, four counts of assault with a weapon, two counts of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, and a single count of mischief under $5,000.

All three victims were transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.