Canadian police say a professor and two students were stabbed Wednesday at a university in the city of Waterloo, about 100 miles west of Toronto.
All three victims — two females and one male — were taken to a hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries, and a suspect has been taken into custody, Waterloo Regional Police said in a press release.
James W.E. Rush, vice president academic and provost at Waterloo University, said the attack happened during a lecture in a gender studies philosophy class.
"I acknowledge that many people will speculate about the motivation for this attack," Rush said in a statement. "We must be patient and have confidence in the judicial process. I urge you to focus your energy on supporting one another during this very traumatic time."
Rush also acknowledged that the university's emergency alert system did not activate, despite being tested earlier in the day.
"One of our priorities in assessing how we can better support you in the future will be to look again at WatSAFE and our emergency notification systems to ensure we have processes that work as expected when we need them," he said.
While some classes in the building where the attack took place were canceled Wednesday evening, Waterloo police said there is no longer a threat to public safety and university operations can proceed as usual.
Today at 3:15pm, our campus community will gather in the Arts Quad in recognition of the shocking attack and trauma we endured yesterday.
Remarks will begin at 3:30pm followed by a moment of silence at 3:37pm. pic.twitter.com/dZj3JKW90U
— University of Waterloo (@UWaterloo) June 29, 2023
