UBC investigating professor’s media post after Trump assassination attempt

A University of British Columbia medical school professor sparked outrage this weekend with a social media post that appeared to condone Saturday’s assassination attempt on the former U.S. president and presumptive Republican candidate in this year’s presidential election, Donald Trump.

In the hours after the chaos at Trump’s Pennsylvania rally, Dr. Karen Pinder took to X, formerly known as Twitter, saying, “Damn, so close. Too bad”.

Another user commented on her post, to which Pinder responded “What a glorious day this could have been.” 

In a statement to CityNews, UBC said “the university is aware of Dr. Pinder’s post and is looking into the matter. The university does not condone violence of any kind.” 

Hamish Telford, an associate professor of political science at the University of the Fraser Valley, says he believes it’s never right to celebrate violence, regardless of how much a political figure is disliked.

“Political violence, and violence generally, outside the context of legitimate war is never to be condoned — it is always to be condemned,” he explained.

While politically motivated violence against Canadian officials is relatively rare, Telford says they’re still at risk. He notes there have been a number of death threats and acts of vandalism against them in recent years, which include an incident in 2020 when a man attempted a citizen’s arrest on NDP leader Jagmeet Singh. 

As the political climate in B.C. heats up, with stark political divides on topics like drug legalization and sexual education in schools causing tensions ahead of this fall’s provincial election, Telford says the attempt made on Trump’s life proves Canada has to remain vigilant and stand on guard against political violence 

“The United States is a real outlier in terms of gun ownership, it’s way off the scale, but if you remove the United States the next outlier in terms of gun ownership is Canada,” he explained.

Telford says he can’t say what the consequences of condoning political violence should be. However, he suggests social media users take the time to pause and reflect before commenting or sharing opinions on controversial topics. 

“There was hardly a pause to digest what had happened no pause to get facts,” he added.

Pinder has since deleted her X account.