After going through an 11 month arbitration process throughout 2023 (30 hearing days spread from January-November 2023, which included eight days on the stand), Frances Widdowson finally found out, on January 16, 2024, that she was fired because of six satirical Tweets and a complaint that was alleged to be “frivolous, vexatious or malicious and not in good faith”. The six satirical Tweets concerns a complaint that was made by Renae Watchman and investigated by Geoff Hope. The complaint that was alleged to be frivolous and vexatious was made against Tim Haney and investigated by Steve Eichler.

The six satirical Tweets concerned the following:

Count 1: An August 24, 2020 Satirical Tweet congratulating @MRUAntiRacism for saying that Canada was a genocidal country. Widdowson’s satirical character, francXs mcgrath asserted that Canada was even more of a genocidal country than Nazi Germany.

Count 2: An August 27, 2020 Satirical Tweet stating that Widdowson had engaged in “epistemic terror” against @MRUAntiRacism and @RacialAdvMRU.

Count 3: A January 26, 2021 Satirical Tweet congratulating @MRUAntiRacism for endorsing indigenous knowledge that was not evidence-based.

Count 4: A January 12, 2021 Satirical Tweet congratulating @MRUAntiRacism for accusing John A. Macdonald of genocide.

Count 5: An October 18, 2021 Satirical Tweet congratulating “Renae, Michael, and Leah of @MRUAntiRacism” for mobbing “Evil” professor Frances Widdowson.

Count 6: An October 23, 2021 Satirical Tweet encouraging @mountroyal4u to regulate satirical Tweets as a workplace issue, and satirically questioning whether @gabbylindstrom and @haneysociology were acting in good faith.

In terms of the complaint Widdowson filed against Tim Haney (investigated by Steve Eichler), Widdowson claimed that she “could not have anticipated that her complaint(s) would be viewed thusly” because the complaints filed against her would be considered to be much more illustrative of this (and the Dirks, Lindstrom, and Watchman complaints were not considered to be frivolous or vexatious). Also, the standard for harassment in complaints filed against her was much lower than the complaint that she filed against Haney, and she was subject to a three and a half month delay that prevented her from understanding the reasons for why complaints would be considered to be frivolous or vexatious.

The Dirks, Lindstrom, and Watchman complaints against Widdowson, as well as Widdowson’s complaint against Haney, are posted below.