The University of Toronto has increased security on its three campuses in response to "anonymous threats made on a public blog."
Provost Cheryl Regehr informed staff and students of the threats in a campus-wide email Thursday.
The threats are believed to have been comments left on BlogTO the week before classes started. The commenter, using the alias Kill Feminists, wrote that women at the school "should be shot to death" and other violent fantasies targeting students and faculty.
We are taking advice of @TorontoPolice and @PeelPoliceMedia on safety and communications. Check http://t.co/qJOA5vaQkY for info.
The handful of comments left by the Kill Feminists account were deleted by moderators but screenshots and archived pages are still available online. They encouraged men to kill feminists who "act rude to you," who act "lewd in the classroom and disrespect you," and who "ruin your life with false sex rape allegations."
BlogTO, a Toronto news and review site, said in a Friday post that its online commenting system logs users' IP addresses and requires names and email addresses, though it does not verify anyone's identity. The site has shared all relevant information with police, publisher Tim Shore wrote.
CUPE 3902, the union representing contract academic staff at the U of T, issued a statement Thursday confirming that "gendered threats" were made targeting women and feminists, including professors.
"Specifically mentioned are those working in Sociology and Women's Studies classrooms," union chair Ryan Culpepper said, noting that members have a legal right to refuse to work if they believe their safety to be at risk.
