Court finds UWaterloo stabbing was a hate crime, not terrorism in sentencing attacker

By Canadian Press on March 17, 2025.

A mass stabbing at a University of Waterloo gender studies class 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 crystallized 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.

“Mr. Villalba-Aleman planned this attack. He posted a boastful and hateful statement of his intention and committed the offence in a university classroom, no doubt to draw widespread attention to his crime,” Brennan said.

“This was not an impulsive act by any definition. Mr. Villalba-Aleman was deliberate and calculated. He intended to inflict, and did inflict, widespread fear.”

Villalba-Aleman, 25, had pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault, one count of assault with a weapon and one count of assault causing bodily harm in the attack that left a professor and two students with stab wounds.

With deductions for time already spent in custody, he faces nearly seven years and seven months behind bars. Brennan ordered that he serve no less than half his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

The federal Crown had sought a sentence of 16 years if the offences were found to be terrorist activity, while provincial prosecutors had asked for a 13-year sentence if the judge rejected the terrorism argument but found the attack was hate-motivated.

The defence meanwhile, previously argued a sentence of eight years, minus credit for time already spent in custody, would be more appropriate if the judge accepted the terrorism argument, or five to six years if the offences were found to be hate-motivated.

Court has heard Villalba-Aleman went into a classroom that afternoon and asked what subject was being taught. When he heard it was a gender-studies course, he pulled out two eight-inch kitchen knives and attacked the professor, stabbing her in the face and arm, according to an agreed statement of facts previously read in court.

Some students threw objects at Villalba-Aleman to distract him while many tried to run away, court heard. Two students were stabbed, and another student Villalba-Aleman tried to stab managed to escape without injury, it said.

The professor, Katy Fulfer, required reconstructive surgery and said the attack has left her in a state of constant vigilance.

In a statement Monday, Fulfer said she is thankful for the outpouring of support she received after the stabbing, from those in the community as well as academics abroad and strangers.

“This support was vital to me, especially in the initial months following the attack,” she said.

“Sentencing marks an end to the legal process, but our community work to cultivate inclusive spaces of belonging continues. No one should experience what my students and I did on June 28, 2023.”

Court has heard Villalba-Aleman initially posed as a victim when police arrived at the scene, but then admitted he was behind the attack.

He initially faced 11 charges in the case.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2025.

Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press