University of Waterloo gender studies course continues a week after stabbing

A University of Waterloo gender studies course that was the target of what police described as a crime motivated by hate resumed on Wednesday, a week after a professor and two students were stabbed.

The professor and two students suffered non-life-threatening injuries during the attack on June 28. A former student at the university has been charged.

University president Vivek Goel told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition that students in the course were expected to discuss the safety measures they'd like to see "to move forward in a comfortable manner" when they met Wednesday.

Goel said students have the option to continue with the course or may be accommodated if they decide not to. 

The Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) said the class was targeted because of the subject matter being taught.

"We believe this was a targeted specific attack related to gender expression and gender identity," Chief Mark Crowell said at a press conference Thursday.

Crowell said he believed the 2SLGBTQ+ community "was targeted broadly and at large here."

"We don't believe that the individuals themselves were targeted for that purpose but we believe that the class subject was of interest to the suspect.," he said.

Campus-wide change

Campus-wide changes are anticipated, too, Goel said. There will be consultations with the students across the university about possible safety measures they'd like to see, he said.

"There are security measures that are being suggested that we can undertake," he said. "But we also have to consider what the consequences of those are, particularly in light of our mission, which is free expression, open, inclusion — many values that we hold very dear."

He said that in establishing new measures, there's the danger of creating situations where some marginalized groups could be victimized in different ways.

"If we create an environment that has locked buildings, locked doors, security cameras everywhere, it's going to create an environment that will not be what we desire to be and will potentially have adverse consequences for many of the members of the community that might feel most vulnerable as well," Goel said.

"In order to do some of the things, like locked doors, we'll have to have security badges and someone will need to check those security badges and there's the potential for people to be discriminated based on who gets asked to show their badge."