Mass stabbing at University of Waterloo gender studies class was hate crime, not terrorism: judge

A mass stabbing at a University of Waterloo gender studies class two years ago was not a terrorist attack but a “particularly grave” hate crime meant to make people feel unsafe in those spaces, an Ontario judge ruled Monday in sentencing the attacker to 11 years in prison.

The judge sentencing Geovanny Villalba-Aleman told a Kitchener, Ont., court that the evidence in the case does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that his hatred toward the LGBTQ+ community had crystalized into an ideology, which is one of the requirements for a finding of terrorism.

However, Ontario Court Justice Frances Brennan found hatred against that community was “the primary motivation” for the June 2023 stabbing, which is a significant aggravating factor.