It is the second time in a week’s span that a threat has been made on the UBC Vancouver campus¹:

For the second time in a week, our Vancouver campus community has received a threatening message.

In this second case, an unspecific threat has been made for Wednesday. The threat does not specify a time, a location within the UBC Point Grey campus or the method of doing harm.

Neither the Police nor the President’s office give details about the nature of the threat, however considering last week’s steps in handling the issue - as taken by the RCMP - one can only speculate that someone might have hinted at bringing a gun to school. Both of these threats have been made in advance, which merits a few thoughts.

Keeping the nature of the threat hidden may generate more fear than necessary. I can’t find any information about what the original threat was, except that it claimed personal harm to others was likely to happen in the Bio Sciences building. Maybe that’s all they know. Maybe that’s all the threat-maker wants. Fear. It is quite interesting to look at such a situation and to consider what the cost is, without actually needing any kind of action beyond the issuing of the threat itself. It keeps people on their toes, angry, ready to snap. It has the police displaying increased levels of violence, ready to jump the gun. It seems that a catalyst is all that’s needed. This would not be merely a prank - this would be a study of terror. The people responsible need to be caught either way, and I’m not suggesting that the threat isn’t real. It’s just that the advance notice is a bit curious, as is the repetition of the threat. There was no talk of demands being made, either, though that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

UBC will be scared tomorrow: maybe some will stay home, maybe some will start looking over their shoulders more often now. The day after tomorrow won’t be the same, anyway.  Some could say it hasn’t been the same since last Wednesday, but then we could say the threat was a joke or that someone thought better than to kill innocent people. With repeating threats, though, we’re constantly fearful of what may happen. You guessed it - the terrorists win.

And, with all this police handling UBC, what’s going on in the rest of the city?

Links:

RCMP Press Release for 01-05-2008
UBC Bulletin (and screenshot here)

1. Yes, this is where I study [↩]