Widdowson Takes U of A!

Spoiled brats, Heckler's Veto, and Politically Correct Totalitarianism

Image from the Gateway

By

James Pew

Update: I went on the Richard Syrett Show yesterday to discuss Situation Widdowson.

It’s been almost a year since the highly contentious, unfairly persecuted, and canceled academic, professor Frances Widdowson, was invited to guest lecture at the University of Lethbridge by professor Paul Viminitz (note: Professor Viminitz was fired from U of L in January, a video at the bottom of this post concerns this controversy). Frances would later describe her experience at what had formerly been considered a distinguished academic institution in Lethbridge as a “clown show.” I covered the Lethbridge episode in these pages with a number of articles, the final one being, Frances Widdowson takes Lethbridge University: The brave vs. the obnoxious .

I’ve also been covering what I call Situation Widdowson, since December of 2021 when Frances was fired from Mount Royal University. Early in 2023 I compared aspects of what Frances was experiencing with Mount Royal, as she fought back against the injustice of her sudden and baseless dismissal, with the character of Joseph K from Franz Kafka’s novel “The Trial,” in my essay, The Kafkaesque “Trial” Of Professor Frances Widdowson.

Part of my commentary all along, which I repeat again, is to point out the injustice that occurs when powerful institutions with far greater resources compared to citizens, use process and procedure to prolong the limbo-like states that they are responsible for placing people in. The same institutional culture that created, or at least acted on, the issues Frances faced at Mount Royal, is the same culture that drags out settlement of the matter. It seems clear to me, in Frances’ still unsettled case, and other cases, that prolonging the process is meant to drain the nerves and resources of those aggrieved against the institutional machine.

But not Mount Royal, nor Lethbridge University, nor the University of Alberta, have been able to break the spirit of Frances Widdowson. Even though they and others in the academic-activist class have literally deployed thousands of agitators (many being hapless students) across the country to militate against her, Frances remains steadfast and defiant. To be honest, I think her resolve actually grows stronger with each attempt made by whining spoiled activists to knock her down. It is truly extraordinary, and more than a little bit terrifying!

For visual context, below is a picture of the Lethbridge “clown show.” This is how it goes: students are hysterical and apoplectic, and Frances smirks and waits patiently for moments to get a reasonable word in. The moments come, but get interrupted with more histrionics before the outline of an idea can be properly put forward. Her patience is matched only by her stubbornness, Frances waits again for the next chance to get her say, and so it goes, a circle where reason meets anti-reason on loop.

But this time, at the University of Alberta, where she was invited by professor Kathleen Lowrey to give a lecture on intellectual freedom, I believe I noticed a slight evolution in Frances’ approach to dealing with baying mobs of activists. There seems still the ability to laugh and smirk at them, but in addition Frances is now answering their impudence with what it deserves. In a few tense instances on a recording of the lecture, Frances is heard raising her voice authoritatively and calling the interrupting and hysterical activists “rude and disrespectful.” Considering that in all scenarios where Frances has faced these types of difficulties, there have been people in attendance who wished to hear what Frances had to say, and that activists feel entitled to decide on behalf of everyone, what is and is not to be heard in a university setting, this speaks not just to their nerve, but to their impertinence.

A point Frances is always quick to make is that the activist-professors, like “Mr. Denialist” Sean Carleton, are mostly responsible for misleading students and causing, as she puts it, “The nursery school” to “take over the academic institutions.”

I reached out to Frances and asked for her take on her University of Alberta appearance. I was also curious about what made the protestors eventually leave the room, permitting the lecture to proceed (which you can hear in the recording embedded below). Here is what she had to say:

“The event was a great success.  I am very thankful to Kathleen Lowrey for inviting me, and the security personnel who were very professional. People were able to express their outrage, but did not dominate the proceedings.  The question and answer session went very well, and we were able to exchange different points of view.  The planning showed that when universities are serious about protecting academic freedom, they can actually do it.  This is in contrast to the University of Lethbridge "Clown Show", where an ineffectual president was completely incapable of defending the academic mission of his university.

There are two possible reasons why the protesters left.  First, they were just there to grandstand and read out a script, and were not really committed to shutting anything down.  The second is that they feared that they would be removed by security.  The second possibility is alarming to me because it won't be long before more determined opposition forms.  Universities need to take action against people who don't allow talks to proceed.  This is a violation of the Code of Conduct and they should be held accountable.

I think we need to show some tolerance of the emotional outbursts and grandstanding.  I lost my temper a little at one time, and I should have controlled myself a little more.  People have freedom of expression but they do not have the right to stop others from expressing themselves.”

Here is the recording of Frances’ lecture on academic freedom:

As you can hear in the recording, there are several moments of disruption. In this case the activists did not persist in their attempts to shut down the talk, however, as Frances explained in a video posted to Facebook, the “heckler’s veto” remains a threat to academic freedom if security is unwilling to remove activists who incessantly disrupt lectures in attempts at sabotage. Academic events must be permitted to function in an orderly manner, and activists in the audience cannot infringe on the rights of academics to express their views, or of other audience members to hear the academic discussion they came for.

Meanwhile, on January 18, Brooks Arcand-Paul and Jodi Stonehouse, who are both members of Alberta’s Legislative Assembly, wrote a letter (and posted it to X) to University of Alberta president Bill Flanagan. Arcand-Paul posted the following to X:

As Indigenous alumni, now MLAs, we are concerned about the planned presentation by Frances Widdowson tomorrow.

And here is the letter:

Frances posted her response to Facebook:

Please resign Brooks Arcand-Paul and Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse. You are not fit to be representatives in a democratic legislature.

What an embarrassing letter disgracefully written by Canadian leaders. I concur, Arcand-Paul and Stonehouse are not fit to be representatives in a democratic legislature. Time and again we see that those who use this term “denialism” or “misinformation” with respect to Canadian history (including Indian Residential Schools), are themselves the true purveyors of misinformation and fact-denial. The days are numbered where a majority of Canadians will continue to buy their nonsense.

It is worth mentioning that Frances is also part of the IRS Research Group which I mention frequently. She wrote a chapter in our book, Grave Error: How The Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools) - which has been a bestseller on Amazon since it was published in December.

The truth, and the research and academic processes necessary to attain it, are being well protected and preserved by independent groups and individuals functioning outside the university/nursery school system. We’ll be fine. There is a lot to feel positive about, and it’s more than a little reassuring to know that warriors like Frances Widdowson are on our side.

As promised, here is the video with Frances and Paul Viminitz concerning his firing earlier this month from the University of Lethbridge:

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Thanks for reading. For more from this author, read Ontario Ed is still Obsessed with Racism

Also, for more evidence of the ideological indoctrination in Canadian education, read Yes, schools are indoctrinating kids! And also, Yes, The University is an Indoctrination Camp!

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