Background
Born in Belarus to a Jewish family, he immigrated to Canada in 1979.
Born in Belarus to a Jewish family, he immigrated to Canada in 1979.
Fabrikant was hired at Concordia University in 1980, where he worked first as a technician under limited grant money. He attempted to collect information to blackmail officials into promoting him, threatened officials and colleagues and blamed others for all his problems.
Fabrikant blamed his peers for his being denied tenure and for seeking to have his employment terminated. By August 1992 Dr. Fabrikant faced a contempt of court charge due to his behavior during his suit. In addition, he had been conducting an email campaign against numerous members of the university. He claimed fears of being killed in jail.Fabrikant represented himself at his five-month-long trial, after firing ten lawyers in the process. His claim was that the murders were done in "self-defence" because members of the faculty were "trying to give [him] a heart attack". During the trial he also compared himself to the abused orphans in the Mount Cashel OrphanaFabrikant is a usenet user known for posting in newsgroups, particularly can.general and can.politics, as well as on his website, which contain trial transcripts, as well as his version of events. He has claimed to be the innocent victim of a conspiracy. From prison, he has managed to circumvent restrictions on his communicationsto argue his case through a website and other media. He filed numerous legal proceedings with the court system until 2000, when the Quebec Superior Court declared him a vexatious litigant. The Court dismissed his bid to clear that status in 2007.
In part because Fabrikant carried out his assault on a university campus, and societies have witnessed rising workplace violence, the case has been extensively studied. Later analysis concluded that "Fabrikant often displayed classic behavioral warning signs indicating potential violence." Within three years of the university's hiring him, Fabrikant had established a reputation of being "a difficult, argumentative and unpredictable individual- and one who seemed to set no limits on his own behavior." The university failed to address his behavior early on, and his harassment of students and colleagues increased over the years.The university attempted to change its guidelines for dealing with personnel.