Episode 12: Did Dr. Gabrielle Lindstrom “Harass” Frances Widdowson?
As of May 15, 2022 – when this sequence of events was constructed – Dr. Gabrielle Lindstrom was not listed as an MRU Employee or a faculty member in indigenous studies. She was employed as an Educational Development Consultant (Indigenous Ways of Knowing) at the University of Calgary. Applications for this position closed on April 30, 2020 and it was announced that Lindstrom had been appointed to it on October 20, 2020.
On December 10 2021, a compilation of Dr. Lindstrom’s Twitter activity pertaining to Frances Widdowson was submitted to Mount Royal University. From July 30, 2020 to February 3, 2021, Lindstrom disseminated 33 posts and retweets with comments, 25 replies, and 22 retweets about Widdowson. In this submission, Widdowson also compiled 67 “likes” by Lindstrom that was provided as additional “context”. This compilation is posted below.
In Episode 5, it was shown that Dr. Gabrielle Lindstrom, an indigenous studies professor at MRU until January 1, 2021, accused Frances Widdowson of “hiding behind academia to spread racist views” for defending the journalist Wendy Mesley’s reference to the book title White Niggers of America and her mentioning (not using) the word “nigger” in an anti-racist context. Lindstrom also agreed with an anonymous Twitter account claiming to be “student led” (@RacialAdvMRU) that Widdowson’s actions were “violent” and that she could not “teach and grade without racial bias”, asking “What will it take for the university to stop in their complicity? A student or faculty member who’s pushed to the edge?”. Lindstrom also encouraged MRU alumnus Grace Dafoe to complain to the MRU President about Widdowson. This occurred on July 30 and 31, 2020 – before Frances Widdowson directed any satire at Lindstrom or created the satirical character “francXs mcgrath (not frances widdowson)”.
This led Frances Widdowson, on July 31, 2020, to post a satirical Tweet critical of how Gabrielle Lindstrom and the anonymous Twitter accounts @RacialAdvMRU and @MRUAntiRacism were inciting a Twitter mob that would eventually demand that Widdowson be fired. In the Tweet, Widdowson used the hashtag #RaceHustling to refer to the phenomenon identified by Thomas Sowell, where activists would make accusations of racism to serve their own interests (see Thomas Sowell, “Civil War is over, but race hustlers want to keep it going”, Enterprise-Record, July 19, 2015).
On August 1, 2020, Widdowson posted a Tweet criticizing Lindstrom, six colleagues, and the @MRUEducation account (the official MRU Education department account) for “liking” Lindstrom’s mobilization of an anonymous “student led” group against her on the basis of a set up by the anonymous troll “@MxSpoike” (who was one of the first two followers of @RacialAdvMRU, along with another troll @MorbidLace).
As will be documented below, Lindstrom repeatedly accused Widdowson of “mocking students”. At the time, however, “Ben V.”/”@MxSpoike”‘s profile stated “25. Queer and Non-binary (They/them is nice pls) I’m a person who does things, and I like stuff”. After Widdowson asserted that “They/them” was a “troll”, “Ben V”/”@MxSpoike” revealed that “They/them” was an MRU student. As a result of this, as well as Widdowson’s interaction with the anonymous @RacialAdvMRU that claimed to be “student-led initiative”, Widdowson was accused of “calling a student a troll” and “mocking” students. @MxSpoike then stated, on September 28, 2020, that “They/them” used their name “the majority of the time”, even though Widdowson had never seen this up until this point (please note: when screenshots are taken of Twitter posts, they reflect the profile at the time the screenshot was taken, not the profile that existed at the time the Tweet was made).
In addition to supporting Rafik Kurji in his efforts to get the MRU Racial Advocacy “student led” group to complain about Widdowson under the code of conduct (documented in Episode 5), Lindstrom posted two tweets (now deleted) on August 1, 2020 about “Settler faculty [not] mobiliz[ing] their considerable social power to spread love and kindness in ways that bring people together through humility and grace”, and implying that the Indian residential school system should not be “up for debate”.
Widdowson replied that she didn’t realize Lindstrom’s attempts to have her disciplined were about “trying to support ‘spread[ing] love and kindness” and “bring[ing] people together through humility and grace”. She also criticized Lindstrom for implying that “the character of the residential schools should not be ‘up for debate’ at a university”. Widdowson used the hashtag #PCTotalitarianism in this Tweet, drawing attention to a phenomenon that she had identified in her scholarly work (see Frances Widdowson, “Let’s call the SJWs what they really are: Politically Correct Totalitarians”, SAFS Newsletter, January 2019).
Lindstrom replied that this was an attempt by Widdowson of “feebly trying to twist people’s words”, which made Widdowson “look totally foolish” (this Tweet is now deleted).
Widdowson replied again about the “love and kindness” and “infinite grace and humility” of Gabrielle Lindstrom’s efforts to try to have her disciplined.
On August 3, 2020, Widdowson responded to Renae Watchman’s August 1, 2020 tweet that “BIPOC & LGBTQ2S students, faculty & staff face daily hostility from bullies that goes ignored-= inaction & complicity. MRU @TimRahilly: acknowledge this systemic oppression & outright harassment as we don’t feel like we belong there”. Widdowson underlined Watchman’s claim about the “daily hostility from bullies” and “systemic oppression & outright harassment” with the question “EVIDENCE?”.
On August 3, 2020, Lindstrom responded to a posting about Widdowson’s demand for “evidence” [of “hostility from bullies” and “systemic oppression & outright harassment”], with the comment “Also if she’s looking for evidence, she just has to find the closest mirror and take a long look at what’s staring back at her”.
On August 6, 2020, Gabrielle Lindstrom responded to a Mount Royal Anti-Racism Coalition post of Widdowson’s questions about whether an official Orange Shirt Day was inclusive for those who maintained that the residential schools “provided some modern educational benefits”. She asked “what kinds of dialogues are academics hoping to provoke by asking these kinds of questions”, and asserted that this was to maintain that “govt sanctioned, church-run institutional child rape, torture and genocide should be up for debate”.
On August 18, 2020, Widdowson referred to an article that she wrote in the SAFS Newsletter entitled “Lessons from the Wendy Mesley Case: Please Don’t Feed the #RaceHustling Crocodiles” (September 2020). One of the attachments in Widdowson’s post contained the above August 6 Tweet from Lindstrom implying that Widdowson’s discussion of the educational benefits of residential schools was justifying child rape, torture and genocide.
On August 24, 2020, Widdowson responded satirically to attempts to assert that Canada was a genocidal state. A number of attachments, including one involving Lindstrom, were provided that showed how students and other professors were arguing that Widdowson should not be able to deny the genocidal character of the residential schools. By stating “Viva Indigenization!”, Widdowson was satirically drawing attention to the fact that the initiative was making it difficult to critically analyze indigenous “ways of knowing”.
This led Lindstrom to reply that Widdowson was “truly…a reflection of all the hate and loathing you spew into the world. Your sick attacks against students are shameful. I’m not afraid of you. Indeed, I pray for you”.
Shortly after August 24, 2020, Gabrielle Lindstrom accused Widdowson of “bullying, racism and epistemic terror”, “#RightwingTerrorism”, and “mock[ing] students” when Widdowson had only satirized an anonymous twitter account (@RacialAdvMRU), which was claiming to be a “student-led initiative” while trying to get her disciplined. These Tweets of Lindstrom’s have been deleted.
This led Widdowson to satirize Lindstrom’s tweets on August 27, 2020 using the same words that Lindstrom had used – “epistemic terror” and “cowardly bullying”. At the time, Widdowson was satirically using the pronouns “It/Maybe”.
On August 27, Gabrielle Lindstrom encouraged a student who was falsely claiming that Widdowson “openly harasses BIPOC students, is racist and homophobic all at the same time” (the name was blacked out by Widdowson to protect the student’s identity). Lindstrom asserted that “current university policy frameworks DO NOT protect marginalized students and faculty”.
This led Widdowson to satirize Lindstrom’s and MRU Racial Advocacy’s remarks on August 31, 2020, using the words “sick attacks” and “extremists against human rights”.
On August 29, 2020, Widdowson retweeted Titania McGrath’s post about “doing another SlutWalk to raise awareness about Islamophobia” with satirical commentary.
On August 31, Lindstrom responded to comments about Widdowson’s retweeting of the Titania McGrath tweet and her satirizing that idea that the residential schools should not be debated at a university. Lindstrom asserted that Widdowson had a “deeply disturbed mind” and “question[ed] her integrity as a scholar for she’s clearly established her lack of integrity as a human being”. She also maintained that Widdowson was engaged in “power-tripping and epistemic violence”.
On September 3, 2020, Widdowson then satirized all the insults directed at her (including Lindstrom’s) about the Titania McGrath retweet and Widdowson’s renaming of her Twitter account Frances McGrath (nee Frances Widdowson). Some MRU faculty members thought that this was intended to mock Lindstrom, when Widdowson was just pretending that her character was Titania McGrath’s “xister-in-law”.
On September 6, 2020, Lindstrom responded to a post on Widdowson’s twitter account advertising her book Separate but Unequal. Widdowson had not completely converted the Twitter account to the satirical mode at this time. Widdowson had only recently learned that changing one’s profile on Twitter would backdate that profile to all previous posts, even if they were made as “Frances Widdowson”. In her reply, Lindstrom maintained that Widdowson’s “whole career has been advanced thru dependency on Indigenous peoples! Lol title should read ‘How one ‘scholar’ conceals identity crisis, dependency, and cultural ignorance through psuedo-critiicality” [sic]. She ended her response by stating that she would “pray for [Widdowson]”.
This reply led Widdowson to satirize Lindstrom’s post.
Shortly after Widdowson’s satirical reply, Lindstrom responded to MRU Racial Advocacy’s claim that it felt “ashamed” to be at MRU because of Widdowson’s presence. Lindstrom argued that we should “relate to one another with respect” and implied that not punishing Widdowson meant that “students voices and dignity” didn’t “matter”.
On September 8, Lindstrom promoted the accusation, without evidence, that Widdowson had been “weaponizing the grading the system [sic] against students who dont conform to her beliefs and has been described by students as holding disturbing and concerning perspectives against marginalized peoples”.
On September 10, Lindstrom accused Widdowson of putting forward “hate speech guised as academic freedom” and treating “students like garbage”.
On September 12, 2020, Widdowson responded to a number of posts, including Lindstrom’s. In this Tweet Widdowson suggested satirically that “‘Prof’ Widdowson should ONLY keep her job if she agrees to wear a leper bell on campus”. She also satirized the claim that Widdowson’s presence at the student pub made students feel “uncomfortable and unsafe”.
On September 25, 2020, Widdowson responded to a Lindstrom post that students were asking “why is ending racism a debate?”, which suggested that this was the question instead of what actually constituted “racism”. Widdowson satirized the idea that defending Wendy Mesley’s reference to a book title and questioning whether the residential schools were genocidal was racist (the accusation of MRU Racial Advocacy).
Lindstrom responded by saying that she would “continue to pray for [Widdowson] and wish [her well]. She stated that she hoped Widdowson might have “one drop of human goodness running through [her] veins”, but then asserted that she would not allow Widdowson’s “loathing” to become her “bane” and claimed to provide “peace, love and light in [Widdowson’s] darkness”.
On September 28, Widdowson satirized many insults from Lindstrom in one post. All of Lindstrom’s disparaging comments were included as four attachments (see below). In this Tweet, Widdowson was referring to Lindstrom’s efforts to get her fired as “kind&humble retribution”. In response to Lindstrom’s comment about providing “peace, love and light in [Widdowson’s] darkness”, the Tweet asserted that Lindstrom was “defusing Widdowson’s DARK HATE with #PeaceLovingLight!!!”.
On October 2, 2020, Widdowson satirized the claims of “Dr. Tony” (also mentioned in Episode 9: White Supremacy Culture and Misgendering Fatigue) that Widdowson’s views on the use-mention distinction with respect to the word “nigger” constituted an “#epistemologyofignorance”. In doing this, Widdowson also satirized Lindstrom’s earlier references to “epistemic terrorism” and “#RightwingTerrorism”)
At this time, Widdowson became aware of a number of attempts to sanction educators for mentioning the word “nigger” in intellectual contexts. One circumstance directly involved Gabrielle Lindstrom again, as Lindstrom was encouraging people to sign a petition to “Discipline Dr. Verushka Lieutenant-Duval” – a professor at the University of Ottawa who had mentioned the word in a class when discussing the perspective of oppressed groups “reclaiming” language once found to be offensive so as to empower themselves.
After a number of professors were threatened for defending Lieutenant-Duval, Widdowson satirized the demands of Lindstrom, Racial Advocacy MRU and the MRU Anti-Racism Coalition to punish professors mentioning words in academic contexts.
This led Lindstrom to ask whether Widdowson’s post was “what academic freedom looks like for Mount Royal University”. Widdowson satirized this response by stating that “‘Academic freedom’ is a cis-hetero-patriarchal white supremacist construct!”
This led Lindstrom to argue that Widdowson should “just be kind…rather than judge and hate for no reason”. She then went on to state that she had “only exchanged pleasantries in the halls with Frances yet she feels the right to mock me, judge my history and advance her opinions that denigrate people and ideas she doesnt agree with, not academic knowledge, just opinions! This is White privilege”. These Tweets have been deleted.
This led Widdowson to satirize Lindstrom’s claims about the “exchange of pleasantries” and that Widdowson should be fired for defending herself from Lindstrom’s attacks. This included retweeting the four attachments with all of Lindstrom’s insults that had been directed at Widdowson.
Lindstrom replied that Widdowson’s satire was a workplace issue, as Widdowson “continues to advance hate towards colleagues which is workplace discrimination and harassment”, and called on MRU President Tim Rahilly to “address” it. This Tweet has been deleted.
Widdowson responded by satirizing Lindstrom’s assertion about harassment, and the perspective that “BIPOCT folx” could not “hate or harass because of an ethically superior position of oppression”.
On October 25, 2020 Widdowson again satirized the attempts to prohibit the discussion of words in academic contexts. One of the attachments included Lindstrom’s attempts to get Lieutenant-Duval disciplined.
On November 6, 2020, Widdowson retweeted a Titania McGrath thread about the things that are now considered to be “racist elements within our society” with satirical commentary.
Gabrielle Lindstrom replied by asking if “this is what MRU is paying [Widdowson] to do? Troll fellow faculty and students accts and then post threads of nonsense? #WokeAF”. This led Widdowson to satirize Lindstrom’s reply that the President should “intervene & fire ‘Prof’ Widdowson” for harassing MRU Racial Advocacy, and thanked her for her “grace&humility”. Lindstrom then thought it was funny that Widdowson believed that Lindstrom had mobilized students against her (Widdowson had actually claimed that an “anon acct…mobilized students against [Widdowson]”), and then blocked Widdowson after replying to her. This led Widdowson to satirize the blocking and provide a number of screenshots of Lindstrom’s mobilization of MRU Racial Advocacy.
In spite of blocking Widdowson, Lindstrom continued to look at her Tweets and comment on and retweet them. These Tweets have been deleted.
After Lindstrom was appointed to a position at the University of Calgary on January 1, 2021 – a position that she had apparently applied on before the deadline of April 30, 2020 – Lindstrom continued to make allegations about “racism” at Mount Royal University. These included tweets on February 3, 2021 that diversity and inclusion efforts were “incredibly performative”, implying that she had been “[driven] out” of MRU because of racism, as well as encouraging MRU President Rahilly to take “authentic action” against those who disagreed with the institutional narrative of the residential schools being genocidal (June 1, 2021), and that HR policies would not be enough to address the concerns of “racialized faculty” because the faculty at the university “reflect[ed] MRU culture” (June 26, 2021). On June 15, 2021, Lindstrom also retweeted a post from a student about how professors should not be saying that the residential schools provided educational benefits with the comment “PSE must do better!”.
On June 26, 2021, Lindstrom also retweeted @MRUAntiRacism’s post about “the racism of Frances Widdowson” and then said “100 percent” in response to @MRUAntiRacism’s post about Widdowson’s “ignorance”.
Six months later, on December 10, 2021, Gabrielle Lindstrom was interviewed for the Canada Research Chair position at Mount Royal University. At 54:20 Lindstrom states that she applied on the position to “come back to Mount Royal” because she “miss[ed] it”.
On December 20, 2021, Frances Widdowson was fired for “contribut[ing] significantly to a harassing and toxic workplace environment” and because “a number of [her] former colleagues have indicated that they have departed the University” due to her actions.
