Valery Fabrikant

Valery Fabrikant (born 28 January 1940 [fr icon cite news
url = http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20060913/CPACTUALITES/60913163/6093/CPACTUALITES
title = Valery Fabrikant, un Don Quichotte paranoïaque
first = André
last = Noël
publisher = La Presse
date = 1992-08-26
accessdate = 2008-06-15] in Minsk, USSR), is a former associate professor of mechanical engineering at Concordia University. He was the gunman in the Concordia University massacre, in which he killed four colleagues.

Background

Born in the Soviet Union to a Jewish family, he immigrated to Canada in 1979 and began teaching at Concordia in 1980. Fabrikant blamed his colleagues for his being denied tenure on four successive occasions and for attempting to have his employment terminated. He also accused the university of tolerating the practice of academics being listed as co-authors on papers to which they have not contributed; in 1992 he went to court to try to have the names of several colleagues removed from research papers he had written in the 1980s. That case was not concluded until November 2007 [cite news
url = http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2007/11/05/fabrikant-court.html
title = Concordia killer in court for 15-year-old lawsuit
publisher = CBC News
date = 2007-11-05
accessdate = 2008-06-15] , when it was dismissed by Quebec Superior Court Judge Nicole Morneau, who used a provision of the Quebec Code of Civil Procedures to dismiss cases that are found to be frivolous or unfounded. [cite news
url = http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2007/11/26/fabrikant-dismissed.html
title = Judge dismisses Concordia killer's lawsuit against former colleagues
publisher = CBC News
date = 2007-11-26
accessdate = 2008-06-15] [cite news
url = http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=5e497b99-e61a-45f6-b1f3-6301dad191d0&k=45471
title = Judge puts end to Fabrikant suit
first = Sue
last = Montgomery
publisher = The Gazette
date = 2007-11-26
accessdate = 2008-06-15]

hooting

A contempt of court charge and a threat of being killed in jail culminated in a shooting rampage on August 24 1992 on the ninth floor of the Henry F. Hall Building at Concordia. Killed in the shooting spree were Departmental Chair Phoivos Ziogas and professors Matthew Douglass, Michael Hogben, and Jaan Saber. A departmental staff secretary, Elizabeth Horwood, was injured. Fabrikant claims that the killings were justified, writing on his website, "I hope to be remembered as a person who had enough courage to fight lawlessness with deadly force and I hope to encourage others to do the same." [cite web
url = http://www.geocities.com/benny_patrick/new9.html
title = Am I sorry?
accessdate = 2006-09-15
first = Valery
last = Fabrikant
year = 2002
format = HTML]

Trial and psychiatric assessment

Fabrikant represented himself at his trial. After several weeks of eccentric behaviour, the judge suspended the proceedings in order to conduct a hearing into Fabrikant's mental fitness to stand trial. He was eventually found fit and after three months of proceedings by two psychiatrists, the judge stopped his defense and he was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. [cite web
url = http://www.youtube.com/fabrikanttrial
title = Valery Fabrikant's trial]

Despite two psychiatrists ruling in his favor, Fabrikant thought he was insulted by these two psychologists, and, according to Dr. Louis Morisette, asked to meet with Morisette, [Louis Morissette, M.D., FRCPC – Psychiatry doctor, responsible for the teen unit, Philippe-Pinel Institute of Montreal] working at Philippe-Pinel Institute specializing in legal psychiatry (prison for the mentally disturbed) where Fabrikant spent several days during the time of his trial. Morisette spent several hours over a few days with Fabrikant. "Fabrikant wanted my help to counter argue the two psychiatrists opinion on him in court, and to help him argue that psychology has no scientific basis and proves nothing." Morisette does in fact disagree with the two psychologists, noting that co-workers' and students' satisfaction reports had always been fine until Fabrikant's leave of absence for a heart attack. Problems reported by students coincide with his return in 1992. "Mr. Fabrikant suffers, in my opinion, from more than a simple personality disorder, […] he could be treated by pharmaceutical products, a treatment he always refused." "We often push the trial dates of people who suffer from complications because of heart attacks. In my opinion Fabrikant is not fit to stand trial." [Dr. Louis Morisette, interviewed by Christainne Charette at SRC 14 Nov. 2007 (quote translated from French by author).]

Aftermath

Fabrikant is serving his sentence at Archambault Prison in Sainte-Anne-Des-Plaines. He continues his academic research from within prison.cite news
url = http://www.grubstreetbooks.ca/essays/fabrikant12.html
title = Dr. Fabrikant's Solution
last = Wolfe
first = Morris
newspaper = Washington Post
page = 12
year = 1994/1995
accessdate = 2008-06-15] He published from prison at least 34 articles on peer-reviewed journals [http://scholar.google.com/scholar?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=author%3AVI+author%3AFabrikant&as_ylo=1994&as_yhi=&btnG=Search] , including a paper in the 2007 volume of "IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics". [cite news
url = http://imamat.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/72/2/180
title = Utilization of divergent integrals and a new symbolism in contact and crack analysis
accessdate = 2008-06-15
first = V. I
last = Fabrikant
publisher = [http://imamat.oxfordjournals.org/ IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics] 2007 72(2):180-190] The author's address was "Prisoner #167932D, Archambault Jail, Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec, Canada J0N 1H0".

Fabrikant is a usenet user known for posting in newsgroups, particularly can.general and can.politics, claiming that he is the innocent victim of a conspiracy against him. From prison, he has managed to circumvent restrictions on his communications [cite news
url = http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2001/012501/news4.html
title = No cheerful earful: Multiple murderer Valery Fabrikant sneaks his message through prison bars
first = Kristian
last = Gravenor
publisher = Montreal Mirror
date = 2001-01-25
accessdate = 2008-06-15] in order to argue his case through a website and other media. He has filed numerous legal proceedings with the court system until in 2000, the Quebec Superior Court declared him a vexatious litigant. A bid to clear that status was dismissed by the Court in 2007. [cite news
url = http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2007/11/07/qc-fabrikant1107.html
title = Quebec judge quashes motions by Concordia killer
publisher = The Canadian Press
date = 2007-11-07
accessdate = 2008-06-15]

The Fabrikant incident resulted in a series of investigations and a formalization of research ethics guidelines by Canada's research funding agencies. An investigation on the conduct of the faculty in Fabrikant's department revealed that some of Fabrikant's claims were indeed true. The three researchers who were the primary target of Fabrikant's allegations have since then had their research accounts frozen by NSERC for misappropriating research funds and have been forced to take early retirement.fact|date=June 2008One of them has since been re-hired as Research Professor.

References

External links

* [http://geocities.com/benny_patrick Fabrikant's website] , containing his own accounts of events, trial transcripts and a collection of postings
* [http://www.grubstreetbooks.ca/essays/fabrikant.html Dr. Fabrikant's Solution] , extensive article by Morris Wolfe, based on earlier articles by Wolfe in "Saturday Night" and "Lingua Franca"
* [http://archives3.concordia.ca/timeline/histories/fabrikant_b.html The Fabrikant Affair] , from Concordia University's online archives
* [http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=%22V+I+Fabrikant%22&btnG=Search Fabrikant's publications] , Google Scholar search for the publications of V.I. Fabrikant