The man who stabbed three people at a University of Waterloo gender studies class last year was clearly motivated by hate, prosecutors argued Thursday, as a defence lawyer rejected the notion that the attack was ideology-driven.
In its submissions at Geovanny Villalba-Aleman’s sentencing hearing, the provincial Crown cited Villalba-Aleman’s hateful remarks about feminists and members of the LGBTQ+ community among the “significant” aggravating factors the court must consider.
The Crown pointed to a manifesto Villalba-Aleman had written before the attack and his comments to police afterward.
Federal prosecutors had argued earlier this week that Villalba-Aleman’s offences amount to terrorist activity in this case because the attack was ideologically motivated and meant to instil fear in the community.
Villalba-Aleman, 25, 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 attack that left a professor and two students with stab wounds.
Provincial prosecutor Armin Sethi said a manifesto Villalba-Aleman shared on an online messaging platform before the attack railed against transgender people, feminists and ideologies that he believed were resulting in censorship of his views.
Villalba-Aleman also told police that he specifically targeted a gender studies class, Sethi said, noting that he destroyed a Pride flag during the attack.
“Hate-motivated offences tear at the very fabric of our society,” Sethi told the court, adding that such crimes have a “very dehumanizing impact” – not just on the victims but also on other members of the targeted groups and society as a whole.
Sethi noted the attack took place during Pride month and that Villalba-Aleman later told police there were “too many things … going on for 12 days with the LGBTQ community.”
Sethi said “the context, the timing, location speaks volumes in terms of what Mr. Villalba-Aleman did.”
The defence, however, argued Thursday that Villalba-Aleman was not motivated by hate toward a specific group, but by “a type of thinking that becomes authoritarian in its application and stifles free speech.”
Lawyer Mel Edwardh said his client had expressed “concern with left-wing thinking to a certain threshold,” and gender ideology was one example of that.
He argued that the federal Crown has not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the stabbings amount to terrorism, because his client did not attach himself to a specific type of ideology that can be named.
“The standard of proof for terrorist activity is a high one,” he told the court.
Edwardh said a “constellation” of environmental and social factors, combined with Villalba-Aleman’s “maladaptive personality traits” and unaddressed mental health issues, led to the classroom attack.
He highlighted his client’s difficulties in connecting with his peers, his isolation and struggles with academic pressures, and his “long history” of self-harm — including suicide attempts — dating back to his childhood.
On Wednesday, a psychologist who recently assessed Villalba-Aleman told the court that he appeared to be in a downward spiral and may have experienced a psychotic break in the weeks leading up to the attack.
Ontario Justice Frances Brennan told the defence Thursday that she had difficulty accepting that suggestion because there is “absolutely no clinical evidence” to back it up, or to show that Villalba-Aleman was treated for psychosis.
Prosecutors argued that any mental-health conditions Villalba-Aleman may have had should not mitigate his crimes because there’s nothing to suggest his violent acts were beyond his control.
They also argued Thursday that Villalba-Aleman’s psych assessment suggests “a continuation of his thoughts and beliefs” that may pose a risk to others in the future.
The provincial Crown said that if the judge does not find Villalba-Aleman’s offences constitute terrorism, but agrees they were hate-motivated, a 13-year sentence should be handed down. Federal prosecutors have sought a sentence of 16 years.
Villalba-Aleman, an international student who came to Canada from Ecuador in 2018, initially faced 11 charges in the case.
Court heard Thursday that he will eventually be subject to a deportation order, and the defence is asking the judge to consider that as part of her sentencing.