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Police investigating death threats against women at U of T

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University students have plenty to worry about these days, debt, competition, and a shortage of good jobs. But female students at U of T have something new, and much more sinister to worry about this fall. As Scot Urquhart tells us, police are now investigating an anonymous death threat, aimed at students in sociology, and women’s studies.
In a week where the University of Toronto is welcoming students back to its campus, a chilling on-line threat is making many female students wary. The threat was posted on social media sites like twitter and reddit under the anonymous user-name ” killfeminists”.
The posts said in part “.. when a feminist at the University of Toronto tries to ruin your life with false rape allegations, rent a gun from a gang and start firing bullets into these feminists at your nearest women’s studies program.”
“We take all of these threats very seriously” said David Estok of the University of Toronto. “We have the ability to send individual private emails to every one of our 80-thousand students, on three campuses. We have sent emails to every student, every faculty member, every member of staff, and in that email we advised them of the threat.”
A statement from the U of T president called violence against women ” a despicable reality” and declared: ” We must take every opportunity to condemn it and work tirelessly, to bring it to an end.”
“Right now Toronto police are saying it’s a low level threat. They’re continuing their investigation. We hope they find the person who did this.”
Just the same, some women on campus are uneasy. “It’s alarming, but I mean things like this , they can happen in Toronto they can happen anywhere. It’s just something we have to be aware of obviously.”
Until police find and arrest a suspect in this case, university officials say they will have to find a delicate balance between promoting safety and awareness on campus, and not engendering a climate of fear.