U of T professor placed on leave after commenting on Charlie Kirk’s shooting death

A University of Toronto professor has been placed on leave after making a controversial comment online in the fatal shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk earlier this week.

According to screenshots, Ruth Marshall, an associate professor of religious studies and political science, posted on her now-private X account, formerly Twitter, that “shooting is honestly too good for so many of you fascist c–ts.”

The tweet was posted at 5:40 p.m. on Wednesday, about an hour after U.S. President Donald Trump shared on social media that Kirk had died.

Marshall’s post was criticized by many users online, including Ontario’s Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security Nolan Quinn.

“Universities and their professors are supposed to foster critical thought, respectful debate, and be safe learning environments — and this professor’s violent rhetoric flagrantly flies in the face of that. I’ve been clear with the University of Toronto: they need to act,” wrote Quinn on social media on Wednesday.

In a statement to CBC News, a spokesperson for the University of Toronto said the university took immediate action after learning of the professor’s social media post.

“The faculty member is now on leave and not on campus. The matter is being looked into and the University will not be commenting further,” the unnamed spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday.

CBC reached out to Marshall but has not heard back. Her faculty pages on the institution did not load Friday, with an “access denied” message popping up instead.

An employment lawyer told CBC that Marshall can get terminated depending on university policies, including any policies around social media use and whether she has caused reputational harm to the university.

“Your employer can terminate you for any reason, so long as that reason is not discriminatory or not a reprisal for you pursuing your employment law rights,” said Samantha Lucifora, a senior partner at Monkhouse Law Employment Lawyers.

There has been a massive increase in people either being disciplined or terminated as a result of social media posts, said Lucifora. 

Lucifora said there are some steps employees can take to protect themselves when using social media, including making their social media accounts private and reviewing any internal work policies that might touch on social media.

“I would tell employees to avoid identifying themselves as an employee or representative of their employer. I would encourage employees when using social media to keep all communications respectful, so avoid explicit language or derogatory comments,” she added.