Episode 17: What Role did @MRUAntiRacism Play in the Mobbing of Frances Widdowson?
In September 2019, the Indigenous and People of Color [Colour] Support Network was formed, in part, to denounce MRU Instructor Mark Hecht’s editorial in The Vancouver Sun on September 6, 2019 (see Episode 14). This “Support Network” created posters, which were distributed at an MRFA pre-General Faculties Council (GFC) meeting, with the words “WE BELONG HERE RACISM DOES NOT”. These were held up during GFC on September 19, 2019.
This was followed by a message from the previous Students’ Association President, encouraging people to attend in “solidarity with communities of colour on campus”.
Because Provost Lesley Brown had responded to the angry crowd at GFC by stating that she had heard no academic arguments being made against Hecht’s piece, Widdowson congratulated Brown and President Tim Rahilly the next day for upholding academic freedom.
On November 1, 2019, it was announced that the “Indigenous and People of Colour Support Network” would be holding a “brainstorming” session every month.
Shortly after, in the Fall of 2019, the Indigenous and People of Color [Colour] Support Network morphed into the Mount Royal Anti-Racism Coalition, which included, according to Renae Watchman, “about 70 people in it, mostly academics at MRU”. These academics had the goal “to advocate against what they perceived to be mounting racism and rhetoric” at MRU.
In June 2020, the Mount Royal Anti-Racism Coalition created the anonymous Twitter account – @MRUAntiRacism.
The Mount Royal Anti-Racism Coalition also had a “Private group” on Facebook with 63 members.
On June , 5, 2020, @MRUAntiRacism posted an article by the Georgia Strait, with a quote implying that Frances Widdowson was “associated with or allegedly affiliated with discrimination, white supremacy, or hate speech…”.
On June 26, 2020, @MRUAntiRacism called United Conservative Party advistor Paul Bunner a “racist” and a “genocide denier” for challenging the idea that the residential schools were genocidal.
On June 28, 2020, after seeing the piece in the student newspaper the Tweet about the “racism” of denying that the residential schools were genocidal, Frances Widdowson alerted @TimRahilly to the formation of the Mount Royal Anti-Racism Coalition and asked if this might “be a vehicle for woke MRU community members to anonymously defame people”.
@RacialAdvMRU (MRU Racial Advocacy) was a Twitter account for a “student-led initiative” that was also formed in June 2020.
On August 14, 2020, @MRUAntiRacism called the United Conservative Party’s curriculum advisor, Chris Champion, a “genocide denier” and a “homophobe”.
On September 7, 2020, , in response to an interview that Widdowson did with the Western Standard about a mob trying to get her fired, @MRUAntiRacism replied “Racist prof seeks sympathy from fringe far-right website. There, we fixed your headline. LOL”.
This was followed up by retweeting a comment by an MRU student that Widdowson was “gloat[ing] about bullying students and colleagues”, when she was discussing how she was responding to be attacked by 41 faculty members.
@MRUAntiRacism then retweeted the false comments from a member of the public stating that Widdowson had “harassed and threatened a group of students fighting systemic racism at MRU”.
On October 14, 2020, it was announced that three members of @MRUAntiRacism had been interviewed “about faculty-based anti-racism work at Mount Royal University”.
On November 3, 2020, @MRUAntiRacism Tweeted about the “Talking Radical” interview with three members of the Mount Royal Anti-Racism Coalition about how they were “fighting racism at an Alberta university”.
On November 3, 2020, “Talking Radical” published an interview with three members of the Mount Royal Anti-Racism Coalition on its website. In this interview, Renae Watchman stated that MRU has “an unspoken climate of anti-Indigenous racism”.
On November 7. 2020, @MRUAntiRacism retweeted that the “Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship” (an organization of which Frances Widdowson is a board member) was “uber-racist” because it published an article criticizing Indigenization.
On November 26, 2020 @MRUAntiRacism retweeted Sean Carleton’s comment that Widdowson’s “residential school denialism” was intended to “rebuff truth and reconciliation as a strategy to protect the power, privilege, and profit settler Canadians derive from the colonial status quo”.
On December 16, 2020, @MRUAntiRacism called Conservative leader Erin O’Toole “reprehensible” for saying that the residential schools attempted to provide an education for indigenous children.
On January 12, 2021, @MRUAntiRacism retweeted the claim that John A. Macdonald’s legacy should be examined more completely was “disgusting genocide denialism” and an attempt to “uphold white supremacy…”.
On January 25, 2021, @MRUAntiRacism stated that “Anyone who defends the residential school system is an unapologetic racist and proponent of genocide”.
On May 28, 2021, @MRUAntiRacism retweeted a story with the false claim that a “mass grave with the remains of 215 children” had been found at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. On June 8, 2021, it asserted that to “deny genocide” after a mass grave of 215 children had been uncovered was “despicable and ignorant”.
On June 20, 2021, @MRUAntiRacism calls University of Ottawa professor Janice Fiamengo a “white supremacist”.
On June 26, 2021, @MRUAntiRacism retweets an article in the Calgary Herald saying that Widdowson created a “culture of fear” with the following quote: “The former MRU faculty member says Widdowson ‘dehumanized’ the suffering of residential school survivors and challenged the validity of Indigenous knowledge while ‘passing it off’ as academic freedom”.
On June 26, 2021, @MRUAntiRacism refers to the “racism of Frances Widdowson”.
On June 26, 2021, @MRUAntiRacism encourages a student Brye Robertson to denounce MRU faculty member Barbara Barnes who said that there were positives and negatives of the residential schools: “Anyone who suggests that ‘positives’ or ‘good things’ came from genocidal practices is an apologist for genocide”.
On June 27, 2021, @MRUAntiRacism retweeted a comment by Katja Thieme that Widdowson’s work was “very discredited” and “only…cranks defend it”.
On July 8, 2021, @MRUAntiRacism retweeted a comment by Sean Carleton that an event Widdowson was participating in consisted of “a bonanza of residential school denialists” and they that were “all non-experts” because they were not historians.
On July 14, 2021, @MRUAntiRacism retweeted a post by the Students’ Association denouncing Frances Widdowson’s comments on the unmarked graves that had a press release suggesting that students be given alternatives to taking her classes because she would not be able to mark fairly.
On November 2, 2021, @MRUAntiRacism asserts that “Many faculty are trying to overcome the failings of other faculty…” in response to a tweet about “ghoulish faculty like Frances Widdowson…”.
On June 17, 2022, @MRUAntiRacism continued its campaign against Widdowson after she was fired. On June 17, 2022, it quoted Craig Proulx’s statement that Widdowson’s co-authored book (with Albert Howard) was “execrable right-wing racist twaddle” and another comment that she was “all[ied]” with a neo-Nazi.
