Unfortunately universities today are full of uneducated idiots and quite a few of them are the so called teachers. I have a grade 12 education I am 75 but even I know from reading history books that the only genocide in Canada was tribe against tribe. I am a history buff and I know about the worst genocides that have happened over the last few thousand years more recently those by Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot even the Jonestown mass suicide. All of them even back as far as pre Roman times have one common factor and that is graves with bodies (bones) that prove massive trauma or Homicide. So please tell me where even one Indian child from a residential school has been proven as a Homicide?
You have a point. Widdowson by all accounts was a Marxist. I wonder whether her lengthy battles with the woke left have modified her view. Perhaps she can comment.
So Peter, it sounds like you are not convinced that Res Schools were murder sites where priests and nuns killed children to solve the indian problem and woke up six year old children in the middle of the night to bury them in shallow graves. Sounds like a plausible story to me for those who think Stephen Kings book, Pet Cemetery, is factually based.
Excellent. Frances is a genuine Canadian hero. Its a real tragedy what the DEI jackals (and weak university and school board admins) did to Richard and Tomas.
Thanks James for this essay on such a very important topic, Academic Freedom. I have become friends with Prof Widdowson and Prof Anthony Hall and I have learned a great deal from their courage against the embedded regimes of DEI/Wokeism, that should have any awake Canadian calling for change in our Universities. The amount of extreme stress these brave professors have been through to uphold these very important values should not go unnoticed. It is also a serious tragedy that several brave professors lost their lives to the tyranny of the University activists. Our neighbour to the south seems to be making strides both in business and academia to remove the DEI/Woke directives and return to common sense, critical thinking and Academic Freedoms ! Canada best pay attention !
Thank you for this essay. Widdowson has been a beacon of hope and light in a very dark time in the development of the western democracies.
The problem is basically the curtailment of free speech by the ruling classes. "They don't ban hate speech, they ban speech they hate." said Elon Musk.
"Disrobing the aboriginal industry : the deception behind indigenous cultural preservation," Frances Widdowson book on this matter, exposes this whole Indigenous demand for reparations, cloaked in the altruistic deceit of "reconciliation," is nothing more than a monetary rewarding, Woke, DEI, colonialism ideology, and to the Trudeaus and Eby’s of this world who continue to pound the heel of their shoes on their altruistic lecterns, to enforce generational guilt, that ensures the doling out of taxpayers money as a monetarily "rewarded." So, it seems that when ideologues are cornered, they are even a more dangerous species, especially where unlimited amounts of money are available as a reward.
Thomas Sowell and others write that when activist groups realise that their dogma seems not to be persuading everyone else, and in this case will be the cause of the money source to run dry, even convinced that that their ideology is way the truth and the light, all they do is just double down, double down and double down again and they move their goalposts into more and more ludicrous positions.
Finally, their cause has to implode as even the majority of their most ardent followers realise what was originally a plausible and just cause, becomes rejected and ridiculed by the silent majority,. That or these ideologues grow up, but some never reach "acceptance" of either.
So, it would seem we all have to be patient and wait for this implosion to occur, as us hoi polloi have done before… The Greeks introduced “demos” the rule by the people, democracy was born: the Magna Carta, charter of English liberties granted by King John on June 15, 1215, under threat of civil war and reissued, with alterations, in 1216, 1217, and 1225. By declaring the sovereign to be subject to the rule of law and documenting the liberties held by "free men , that took many centuries to occur; Communism’s experiment started in earnest in 1917 and collapsed in the majority of countries in 1989-92; Islam is thriving and shows no moves towards being democratic.
So how long is all this Wokeness on the Western World going to last? Who knows but with the election of Trump in the US, there are those that believe all that is Woke is on the ropes and will be knocked out of our western society by the time his term as President expires. Let's all hope so.
As Brock University is my undergraduate alma mater, albeit, 50 years ago, I was disappointed to have missed her lecture and gratified by the response she received there. She epitomizes academic freedom and is courageous in her pursuit to enlighten the current generations who have become brainwashed by toxic anti intellectual dogma supported by DEI zombies. Brock University in the early 70s was not shy about embracing and confronting controversies at the time. At one point they hosted a very controversial TV program called, "Under Attack" where divergent speakers had to justify their positions to a very combative audience. Such was the security concerns at the time, that the administration seconded the Karate Club to provide security.
I'm watching this talk at Brock. First off, these kids are painfully stupid (no surprise there). But Widdowson herself seems to have no clue about the appropriate scientific methodology that ought to be applied to addressing questions about systemic abuse. She dwells on the necessity of investigating individual investigable cases (which are apparently non-existent!) when the real question should be about comparative outcomes between those who went to IRS and those who didn't. It's called having a fricking control group! You don't have 'science' without it.
The irony is, Widdowson is supposedly a Marxist. Barry Cooper recently described her as a 'classical Marxist.' (Maybe he meant 'orthodox (Kautskyian) Marxist'?) But the thing with classical Marxists is, they're not really into a principled defense of 'academic freedom.' They're into violent revolution. Much like the 'cultural Marxist' woke-tards at the UofL and elsewhere.
In any case, Widdowson's historically and philosophically illiterate evocation of the legacy of 'the Enlightenment' is entirely propagandistic, quite in keeping with classical Marxist methods. If the real reason for rejecting 'indigenous ways of knowing' is that they conflict with the ahistorical and philosophically naive dogmas of 'the Enlightenment,' which eventuate in the Marxist suspension (i.e., cancellation) of ethics and embrace of revolutionary violence, then that's just silly and it is a fitting punishment that she become the victim of post-ethical Marxist violence, like Robespierre becoming the victim of the guillotine. "Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword." Those who promote Marxist ideology become the victims of Marxist ideology.
Which leads me to ask, James: Why is Widdowson the greatest hero in this domain? What about Jordan Peterson? Do you only like the Marxist flavor of 'academic freedom,' the kind that promotes silly propagandistic lies about the history of religion and science?
Unfortunately universities today are full of uneducated idiots and quite a few of them are the so called teachers. I have a grade 12 education I am 75 but even I know from reading history books that the only genocide in Canada was tribe against tribe. I am a history buff and I know about the worst genocides that have happened over the last few thousand years more recently those by Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot even the Jonestown mass suicide. All of them even back as far as pre Roman times have one common factor and that is graves with bodies (bones) that prove massive trauma or Homicide. So please tell me where even one Indian child from a residential school has been proven as a Homicide?
NO I didnt think so.
Universities are Communist ideology production mills.
And don't forget mao - #1 mass murderer of all time.
And what do the mass murderers Stalin, Pol Pot, and Mao have in common? Marxists, like our brilliant hero Widdowson!
You have a point. Widdowson by all accounts was a Marxist. I wonder whether her lengthy battles with the woke left have modified her view. Perhaps she can comment.
So Peter, it sounds like you are not convinced that Res Schools were murder sites where priests and nuns killed children to solve the indian problem and woke up six year old children in the middle of the night to bury them in shallow graves. Sounds like a plausible story to me for those who think Stephen Kings book, Pet Cemetery, is factually based.
Excellent. Frances is a genuine Canadian hero. Its a real tragedy what the DEI jackals (and weak university and school board admins) did to Richard and Tomas.
Thanks James for this essay on such a very important topic, Academic Freedom. I have become friends with Prof Widdowson and Prof Anthony Hall and I have learned a great deal from their courage against the embedded regimes of DEI/Wokeism, that should have any awake Canadian calling for change in our Universities. The amount of extreme stress these brave professors have been through to uphold these very important values should not go unnoticed. It is also a serious tragedy that several brave professors lost their lives to the tyranny of the University activists. Our neighbour to the south seems to be making strides both in business and academia to remove the DEI/Woke directives and return to common sense, critical thinking and Academic Freedoms ! Canada best pay attention !
Thank you for this essay. Widdowson has been a beacon of hope and light in a very dark time in the development of the western democracies.
The problem is basically the curtailment of free speech by the ruling classes. "They don't ban hate speech, they ban speech they hate." said Elon Musk.
"Disrobing the aboriginal industry : the deception behind indigenous cultural preservation," Frances Widdowson book on this matter, exposes this whole Indigenous demand for reparations, cloaked in the altruistic deceit of "reconciliation," is nothing more than a monetary rewarding, Woke, DEI, colonialism ideology, and to the Trudeaus and Eby’s of this world who continue to pound the heel of their shoes on their altruistic lecterns, to enforce generational guilt, that ensures the doling out of taxpayers money as a monetarily "rewarded." So, it seems that when ideologues are cornered, they are even a more dangerous species, especially where unlimited amounts of money are available as a reward.
Thomas Sowell and others write that when activist groups realise that their dogma seems not to be persuading everyone else, and in this case will be the cause of the money source to run dry, even convinced that that their ideology is way the truth and the light, all they do is just double down, double down and double down again and they move their goalposts into more and more ludicrous positions.
Finally, their cause has to implode as even the majority of their most ardent followers realise what was originally a plausible and just cause, becomes rejected and ridiculed by the silent majority,. That or these ideologues grow up, but some never reach "acceptance" of either.
So, it would seem we all have to be patient and wait for this implosion to occur, as us hoi polloi have done before… The Greeks introduced “demos” the rule by the people, democracy was born: the Magna Carta, charter of English liberties granted by King John on June 15, 1215, under threat of civil war and reissued, with alterations, in 1216, 1217, and 1225. By declaring the sovereign to be subject to the rule of law and documenting the liberties held by "free men , that took many centuries to occur; Communism’s experiment started in earnest in 1917 and collapsed in the majority of countries in 1989-92; Islam is thriving and shows no moves towards being democratic.
So how long is all this Wokeness on the Western World going to last? Who knows but with the election of Trump in the US, there are those that believe all that is Woke is on the ropes and will be knocked out of our western society by the time his term as President expires. Let's all hope so.
As Brock University is my undergraduate alma mater, albeit, 50 years ago, I was disappointed to have missed her lecture and gratified by the response she received there. She epitomizes academic freedom and is courageous in her pursuit to enlighten the current generations who have become brainwashed by toxic anti intellectual dogma supported by DEI zombies. Brock University in the early 70s was not shy about embracing and confronting controversies at the time. At one point they hosted a very controversial TV program called, "Under Attack" where divergent speakers had to justify their positions to a very combative audience. Such was the security concerns at the time, that the administration seconded the Karate Club to provide security.
Cheers to those brave warriors for freedom!
I'm watching this talk at Brock. First off, these kids are painfully stupid (no surprise there). But Widdowson herself seems to have no clue about the appropriate scientific methodology that ought to be applied to addressing questions about systemic abuse. She dwells on the necessity of investigating individual investigable cases (which are apparently non-existent!) when the real question should be about comparative outcomes between those who went to IRS and those who didn't. It's called having a fricking control group! You don't have 'science' without it.
The irony is, Widdowson is supposedly a Marxist. Barry Cooper recently described her as a 'classical Marxist.' (Maybe he meant 'orthodox (Kautskyian) Marxist'?) But the thing with classical Marxists is, they're not really into a principled defense of 'academic freedom.' They're into violent revolution. Much like the 'cultural Marxist' woke-tards at the UofL and elsewhere.
In any case, Widdowson's historically and philosophically illiterate evocation of the legacy of 'the Enlightenment' is entirely propagandistic, quite in keeping with classical Marxist methods. If the real reason for rejecting 'indigenous ways of knowing' is that they conflict with the ahistorical and philosophically naive dogmas of 'the Enlightenment,' which eventuate in the Marxist suspension (i.e., cancellation) of ethics and embrace of revolutionary violence, then that's just silly and it is a fitting punishment that she become the victim of post-ethical Marxist violence, like Robespierre becoming the victim of the guillotine. "Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword." Those who promote Marxist ideology become the victims of Marxist ideology.
Which leads me to ask, James: Why is Widdowson the greatest hero in this domain? What about Jordan Peterson? Do you only like the Marxist flavor of 'academic freedom,' the kind that promotes silly propagandistic lies about the history of religion and science?
Dig them up or shut up!
In this podcast, I explore the concept of TRUST and how it is being used, abused and misused. Let's explore it together: https://soberchristiangentlemanpodcast.substack.com/p/s1-ep-7-scgp-rebroadcast