Valery Fabrikant

1. Archambault Institution
   Dates unknown

Valery Iosifovich Fabrikant (Russian: Валерий Иосифович Фабрикант, Belarusian: Валеры Іосіфавіч Фабрыкант, romanized: Valery Iosifavič Fabrykant, [vɐˈɫɛrɪj ˈjosifəvɪt͡ɕ fɐbrʲɪˈkant]; born 28 January 1940) is a former associate professor of mechanical engineering at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On 24 August 1992, after years of increasingly disruptive behaviour at the university, he shot and killed four colleagues and wounded one staff member. His case stimulated much research and debate about gun control, and how universities should manage difficult employees. By 1994, the university gathered over 200,000 signatures with the Coalition for Gun Control on a petition to ban the private ownership of handguns in Canada. After the Cowan Report criticized the university for being too "vague" and "slow" in dealing with Fabrikant, in 1995 they appointed an advisor to implement a "Code of Rights & Responsibilities", and later a "Code of Ethics", adopted in 1997, and created civil behaviour and conflict resolution initiatives like the Peace and Conflict Resolution Series in 2003. He was sentenced to life in prison and was denied parole or temporary leave in 2015 and again in 2022. After he filed numerous court proceedings of dubious legal merit, the Quebec Superior Court declared him a vexatious litigant, in 2000, which limits his ability to file legal actions.