“Examples” #7 and #8 of President Rahilly’s December 20, 2021 termination letter stated that Frances Widdowson had “been found to have contributed significantly to a harassing and toxic workplace environment” and “a number of…former colleagues have indicated that they have departed the university as a result of or influenced by you and your actions”.
Shortly before she left for McMaster University, on May 21, 2021, Watchman was one of the six faculty members found to have harassed Frances Widdowson. Watchman was found to have engaged in “ostracism” by “amplifying calls for the silencing of the Complainant [Widdowson] by threatening her publishers”.
On December 20, 2021, after MRU administrators had attempted to serve President Tim Rahilly’s termination letter (see Episode 8) and three hours after MRU’s Dean of Arts had sent an email at 6:22 p.m. to 32 people (including all faculty Chairs) that Frances Widdowson was no longer a faculty member at Mount Royal University, Dr. Renae Watchman replied with the word “Celebrate” to a Tweet from a Mount Royal Faculty Association executive board member that “Miracles do happen”, as well as a reply meme “I’m Santa Claus” from another Mount Royal Faculty Association executive member.
On the morning of December 23, 2021, Watchman responded to former MRU student Terrill Tailfeathers’ comment on December 22, 2021 that “rumour has it Frances Widdowson was fired from MRU lol. Good news if it’s true.”
At 2:05 p.m. that day, Dr. Bruce Gilley, a professor at Portland State University, posted a Tweet stating that “Widdowson was terminated…under pressures from its radical ‘indigenous’ studies faculty…”.
At 3:49 p.m., Watchman posted a thread of six tweets with respect to Widdowson’s firing, saying that “On Monday, it was leaked to me that a certain colleague no longer works at MRU”. She then stated that there was a “misunderstanding that this colleague [Widdowson] was fired because of Indigenous Studies faculty at MRU”, and to “blame Indigenous faculty for her [Widdowson’s] dismissal is incorrect & disrespectful”.
Dr. Niigaan Sinclair, a professor at the University Manitoba, then retweeted Watchman’s thread with the comment that “The real situation at MRU was terrible and abusive for Indigenous faculty”, and he thanked Watchman for “speaking up” about it with the thread that she tweeted.
Two other “examples” given for Widdowson’s firing concerned the complaints filed by Widdowson against Watchman and other faculty members (six which had been substantiated). These were asserted to involve “an inordinate amount of resources” (#6). Widdowson’s declared intention to use the standard of the one “misgendering fatigue” Tweet – a Tweet that was found to violate three policies and two laws (see Episode 9) – was considered to be a firing offense because this was perceived to indicate that she “intend[ed] to continue to lodge complaints whether or not they are frivolous or vexatious” (#5).
