Statements made by a man who stabbed a professor and two students in a University of Waterloo gender studies class last year show the attack was ideologically motivated and meant to instill fear in the community, federal prosecutors argued Tuesday.
The federal Crown began making its submissions at Geovanny Villalba-Aleman's sentencing hearing, arguing the offences he pleaded guilty to amount to terrorist activity in his case.
One of the key components of terrorism under Canadian law is that the act must have been committed for a political, religious or ideological purpose.
Another is that it must have been done with the intention of intimidating the public or a segment of the public regarding security, or to compel a person or organization to do or refrain from doing something.
Federal prosecutors argued Villalba-Aleman laid out his "bespoke ideology" in a statement to police and a manifesto found on his phone.
He made it clear in speaking to police that he did not know the people he attacked and had no personal grudge against them, but instead wanted to "strike out against the left-wing, woke ideology which, in his mind, they personified," the Crown said in its submissions.
The former University of Waterloo student has 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 June 2023 stabbings.
Court watched a video of this statement to police earlier in the sentencing hearing. In the video, Villalba-Aleman said he went into the gender studies class because of the subject matter that was being taught.
He told police he felt colleges and universities were imposing ideology and restricting academic freedom, and wanted the attack to serve as a "wake-up call."
An agreed statement of facts previously read in court said Villalba-Alleman's manifesto seemed to reference and defend infamous mass killers in Norway and New Zealand.
Villalba-Aleman, an international student who came to Canada from Ecuador in 2018, initially faced 11 charges in the case.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2024.
Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press
