In 2016, Frances Widdowson formed the Rational Space Network. A Rational Space Declaration was created and an email list was formed. About 15 faculty members interacted informally abut how to support reasoned debate on campus.
In 2018, it was decided that a Critical Thinking Series would be held. This ended up including four events. These events were designed to examine a contentious question, with one person arguing “Yes” and the other “No”. “Critical Thinking Facilitators” were also deployed to summarize the arguments and ask questions to probe the assumptions of the presenters. This was to model discussion for the audience so that the question and answer period could examine the matters of contention rationally.
The first event was “Is Canada’s Support for Israel Justifiable?” Ryan Bellerose argued “Yes” and Yves Engler argued “No”. Frances Widdowson and Shawn England were the Critical Thinking Facilitators, and the moderator was David Clemis.
The second event was “Should University Vet Who Speaks on Campus?“. David Tabachnik argued “Yes” and Lindsay Shepherd argued “No”. The moderator was Mirjam Knapik. Frances Widdowson and Paul Johnston were the Critical Thinking Facilitators.
The third event was “Is Capitalism Sustainable?”, with Tom Flanagan arguing “Yes” and Albert Howard arguing “No”. Mirjam Knapik was the moderator. Gerry Cross and Bill Glanzman were the Critical Thinking Facilitators.
The fourth event was “Does Trans Activism Negatively Impact Women’s Rights?“, with Meghan Murphy arguing “Yes” and Julie Rei Goldstein arguing “No”. Peter Zizler was the moderator. Marc Schroeder and Frances Widdowson were the Critical Thinking Facilitators.
In spite of the “Is Canada’s Support for Israel Justifiable?” event appealing to those seeing themselves on the Left of the political spectrum, MRU faculty members opposed Lindsay Shepherd being a participant. In response to University of New Brunswick professor Matthew Sears asserting that he refused to participate, MRU professors Roberta Lexier, Kim Williams and Michael Truscello also announced their non-partipation and opposition to the event. Roberta Lexier stated that she was happy that everyone was turning Widdowson down, and there was “no need to/benefit in participation in these events”. Michael Truscello asserted that he was not “going to give legitimacy to a racist prof [Widdowson] giving a platform to a white nationalist [Shepherd]”.
The reaction to this event, however, was nothing in comparison to the discussion of trans activism. After hearing about the event, Kim Williams made a series of Tweets implying that it was “intent on stoking a divisive fire”.
Women and Gender Studies then organized an event immediately afterwards implying that the Rational Space Network event amounted to “having [trans] identities and safety considered debatable”.
The Twitter account of the Mount Royal Faculty Association (MRFA) was also comandeered to promote the “therapeutic conversation”, which resulted in Widdowson writing to the MRFA President.
