U of Waterloo stabbing at gender studies class amounts to terrorism: prosecutors

Federal prosecutors say the charges against a man accused of a triple stabbing targeting a gender studies class at the University of Waterloo amount to terrorism offences.

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions George Dolhai says the 11 charges laid against Geovanny Villalba-Aleman over the June 28 attack “constitute terrorism offences.”

Dolhai provided the Ontario court of justice in Kitchener, Ont., with the attorney general’s consent to start terrorism proceedings against Villalba-Aleman on Friday morning.

Police have alleged the 24-year-old former University of Waterloo student walked into the gender studies class, asked the 38-year-old professor for the subject of the class and then attacked her with two large knives.

Two students _ a 19-year-old man and 20-year-old woman _ were also stabbed and police said the suspect then attempted to stab another person.

The stabbing victims sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries in the attack that police have described as hate motivated.

Villalba-Aleman is next scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 15