Dr. Karen Pinder, a medical professor at University of British Columbia (UBC), said it’s “too bad” the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump was unsuccessful. Trump on Saturday was shot at with a rifle from a rooftop during the Republican Convention in Pennsylvania Saturday. The bullet skimmed the cartilage in his ear, but otherwise he was unharmed. One person was killed, and two critically injured. Professors at University of Alberta and University of Guelph have also taken to social media to add their two cents, each of which has garnered substantial backlash on the social media platform. “Damn, so close. Too bad,” wrote Pinder on Twitter (“X”) in the aftermath of the shooting. “What a glorious day this could have been!” she added in the comments. The account was immediately deleted afterwards, but not before UBC animal care researcher Ingrid Barta wrote in the comments of Pinder’s post, “Damnit, so close! And now he’ll milk being a victim for more votes. I reeeeally wish the person had better aim.”BC Conservative party leader John Rustad retweeted Pinder’s comments and wrote, “This is so disappointing to see from a UBC Professor.”“No classroom in this province should have room for this kind of radicalism. This isn’t about left vs right — it’s about right vs wrong.”“This is why so much hate and violence occurs in British Columbia,” wrote Conservative party candidate Chris Sankey wrote in the comments. UBC spokesperson Thandi Fletcher confirmed to True North “the university is aware of Dr. Pinder’s post” and said the school is “looking into the matter.” “(UBC) does not condone violence of any kind,” wrote Fletcher. UBC, which receives significant funding from both provincial and federal governments, did not respond to the Western Standard’s questions by the time of publication regarding whether Pinder will be allowed to maintain her position at the school. .Dr. Andy Holt in the education department at the University of Alberta questioned how the assassin could have merely “skimmed the ear” of such a “huge target” and insinuated the shooting was “staged by Trump.”“Huge target, bright orange, and they skimmed his ear? Either this is a set-up, or the bullet was a ricochet,” wrote Holt in one post. “If it turns out that this ‘shooting’ was staged by Trump in an attempt to win votes, I don’t think it would reduce the number of votes Trump get at all. That’s where we’re at,” he wrote in a second post. Holt’s Twitter account has since been changed to private. U Alberta media spokesman Mike Brown told the Western Standard the university was unaware of Holt’s tweets but would look into the matter and will respond with an update. .University of Guelph biology professor Shoshanah Jacobs on social media laughed at fact someone died as a result of the assassination attempt. “When four inches really matters,” wrote Jacobs, alongside an MSNBC video of the shooting. Someone responded in the comments that she is an “awful person” for making “jokes.” and pointed out that someone died that day. Jacobs directly below posted a meme of a woman laughing hysterically. “I was making a point about how a couple of inches spared him,” wrote Jacobs later in response to social media backlash before she too turned her account to private. “This was, of course, before I learned that someone did die. Not sure why my post is being misinterpreted.”“Any death is tragic. I didn’t know that someone had died,” she added, blaming the social media user’s “sad attempt to rage bait me.”“I hope that this loss leads to better gun controls.”The University of Guelph has not responded to the Western Standard’s request for comment.
