U of L cancels Widdowson talk
By Lethbridge Herald on January 31, 2023.
Ry Clarke
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
he University of Lethbridge has cancelled a planned lecture from a controversial guest speaker following pushback from students, faculty, and members of the public.
Frances Widdowson was scheduled for a speaking engagement at the U of L on Feb. 1 but now the school’s president, Mike Mahon, says the appearance is cancelled.
Widdowson was fired from her job as an associate professor at Calgary’s Mount Royal University in December 2021 after making controversial comments about the Black Lives Matter movement and Canada’s residential school system.
Last week, students, faculty, and members of the public took to social media asking for answers and voicing concern after learning of Widdowson’s event.
Many were calling for the event to be cancelled, saying Widdowson’s denialism and presence on campus would be a clear violation of student safety, while others were organizing a “peaceful protest” to be held on the day of her presentation.
On Thursday, Mahon posted a statement to the ULethbridge notice board emphasizing freedom of speech and freedom of expression.
“Members of the university community have the right to criticize and question views expressed on campus, but they may not obstruct or interfere with others’ freedom of expression.
“Debate or deliberation on campus may not be suppressed because the ideas put forward are thought by some, or even most, to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or misguided.
“We encourage all members of our internal and external community to carefully evaluate scholarly evidence and rely upon peer reviewed resources in their careful assessment and engagement with the views of speakers,” read part of the statement.
However, following continual push from the public and planned protests, Mahon issued another statement on Monday saying the university will not provide space for the public lecture to occur on campus.
Widdowson posted an update to her Facebook page following Mahon’s statement, where she vowed to make an appearance despite the cancellation.
“To the University of Lethbridge: I WILL be speaking at The Atrium at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 1, 2023. The title of my talk is ‘How ‘Woke-ism’ Threatens Academic Freedom’.
“You will have to haul me away by security to stop me.”
McMahon said in his statement that “we are committed to the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada.”
“It is clear that the harm associated with this talk is an impediment to meaningful reconciliation.”
Two petitions were created on change.org to stop Widdowson’s speaking engagement, gathering over 2,500 signatures combined, along with the Department of Indigenous Studies releasing its own statement in regards to Widdowson and her talk, saying it “vehemently condemns the anti-Indigenous rhetoric routinely disseminated by former MRU professor Frances Widdowson and deplores the fact that she is being given a platform to legitimize that discourse on our campus. Widdowson has left us in no doubt as to her positions; she has regularly espoused these views through published articles, public speaking, broadcast podcasts, and other public forums. She specifically denounces the TRC’s classification of the Residential School system as genocide and disputes the veracity of the unmarked graves of Indigenous children found at the sites of multiple former Residential School sites,” reads the statement. It goes on to add that the U of L must be committed to stand next to Indigenous students on campus, and show a commitment to reject ideologies which continue to propagate violence against Indigenous Peoples through rhetoric of historical erasure, dismissal, diminishment, and dehumanization.
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I have seen pictures of Ms. Widdowson. She does not appear to be a “she hulk”, causing me to suspect that the ” fear to student safety” mentioned in this article stems not from a fear of physical assault but more from a fear of intellectual challenge. There was a time when Universities, particularly liberal arts institutions such as was the U of L , allowed , even invited, controversial discussion. Opinions were offered, critiqued,suppprted and rebutted, leaving the attendee to [ brace yourself ] THINK FOR THEMSELVES and come to thier own assessments of what they heard.
An institution of ” thought and education” should embrace discussion and the examination of controversial opinions , not run in fear of them, swayed in one day by the winds of shame from the cancel crowd.
The U of L has forgotten its mandate of education, it has let “the tail wag the dog” and rather than teaching it’s students HOW to think has elected to go the path of teaching them WHAT to think.
To paraphrase a local folk singer of old ” They paved paradise and put up a parking lot “.
[…] Freedom.” I was about to experience the fury of current wokism. UofL President Mike Mahon originally stated that the talk would be allowed to proceed because of the institution’s policy on freedom of […]