Court finds UW stabbing was a hate crime; attacker gets 11 years in prison

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.

The judge sentencing Geovanny Villalba-Aleman says that hatred 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.”

With deductions for time already spent in custody, Villalba-Aleman 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.

Villalba-Aleman, an international student who came to Canada from Ecuador in 2018, initially faced 11 charges in the case.

He 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.

An agreed statement of facts previously read in court said Villalba-Aleman told police he carried out the attack because he believed post-secondary institutions were “forcing ideology” on people.

It said he told police he went into the gender studies class because of the subject matter being taught and specifically targeted the professor.

A 38-year-old female professor, a 20-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man – both students, were stabbed inside a classroom at the university’s Hagey Hall on June 28, 2023. All three were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The University of Waterloo professor later said the incident left her in a state of perpetual vigilance while teaching and stoked fears that others may be inspired to commit similar acts of violence on campus.

Police said there were roughly 40 students inside the classroom when the stabbings took place.

One student tripped while trying to run away and was repeatedly stabbed in the back, while another was slashed on the arm and hand, court heard during the trial. Villalba-Aleman attempted to stab another student, but she escaped without injury.