OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday condemned a stabbing attack in a gender studies class at the University of Waterloo that injured three people and was described by police as a hate-motivated incident.
“Yesterday’s stabbings at a gender studies class at the University of Waterloo are horrifying and unacceptable,” Trudeau said on Twitter.
The attack on Wednesday sent a 38-year-old female professor and two students, one male and one female, to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.
“This type of violence must always be condemned. Our thoughts are with the professor and two students who were injured,” Trudeau said.
Police have arrested Geovanny Villalba-Aleman, a 24-year-old international student at the university, and charged him with offenses including aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
“The accused targeted a gender-studies class and investigators believe this was a hate-motivated incident related to gender expression and gender identity,” the Waterloo Regional Police said in a statement.
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. Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh, leader of the smaller New Democrats party supporting his government, have condemned these attacks.
In the United States, President Joe Biden has announced measures intended to curb book bans and rising hate crimes, warning about “ugly” attacks from “hysterical” people who are targeting LGBTQ+ Americans.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa, editing by Deepa Babington)
