Episode 7: The Students’ Association Press Release Condemning Frances Widdowson

Two of the examples given for why Dr. Widdowson was fired concerned social media comments that she had made. In referring to these “complaints and concerns”, MRU mentioned “a media release from SAMRU [Students’ Association of Mount Royal University] condemning [Widdowson’s] social media comments in July of 2021”. These social media comments concerned satirical Tweets about what Widdowson perceived to be the hysteria surrounding allegations about “unmarked graves” at residential schools.

These examples are surprising because, in 2019, Mount Royal University had created an “Expression and Free Speech Policy”. This policy was in response to a Directive from the Alberta government that universities promote open inquiry by developing guidelines that aligned with the Chicago Principles (a document promoting free speech produced by the University of Chicago).

Article 1.2. of MRU’s Expression and Free Speech Policy maintained that the university “unequivocally embraces its institutional responsibility to ensure the free and open exchange of ideas” and “presentations or debate” would not be suppressed even if they were “thought to be offensive, unwise, immoral, extreme, harmful, incorrect or wrongheaded”.

This policy also maintained that no member of the MRU community could “obstruct or interfere with the free speech of others”.

Furthermore, MRU’s Collective Agreement had an “academic freedom” provision stating that “[a]cademic staff shall not be hindered or impeded in any way…from exercising their legal rights as citizens” and that they should have “freedom from institutional censorship”. Presumably, these “legal rights as citizens” would include Section 2(b) of The Charter of Rights and Freedoms: “freedom of thought, opinion and expression…”.

Widdowson’s social media commentary on the “unmarked graves” largely unfolded through satirical posts on Twitter. In August 2020, following an attempt of an indigenous studies scholar to mobilize an anonymous alleged student led group against her (see Episode Five), Widdowson turned her Twitter account into the character Frances McGrath (NOT Frances Widdowson) to pursue the truth through satire. The character was modelled on Titania McGrath – a satirical character created by the British comedian Andrew Doyle.

Widdowson’s commentary about the “unmarked graves” began after May 27, 2021, when CFJC Today Kamloops broke the story that “Tk’emlups confirms bodies of 215 children buried at former #Kamloops Indian Residential School site”. This resulted in a former MRU indigenous studies scholar stating, on May 28, 2021, that “215 little ones…were murdered in that residential school”.

Another former MRU professor retweeted the CFJC Today Kamloops story with the comment that “the community had a feeling and the discovery confirms what many of us know to be the truth: that the residential school system was genocidal and its effects are ongoing”. This led The Dorchester Review to point out that the death of indigenous children was often due to “tuberculosis or some other disease”. In response to this factual assertion, the former MRU professor stated the following: “In case you needed any more proof that the Dorchester Review is just a straight up garbage, genocide denialism outfit. Trolling dead children is repugnant, you absolute ghouls!”

Dr. Carla Peck, an education professor at the University of Alberta, also reacted to other tweets by The Dorchester Review that questioned allegations about a “mass grave”, “murders” and “genocide”. She encouraged Premier Kenney and Minister LaGrange to denounce the editor of The Dorchester Review, Chris Champion. “Standing by Champion”, according to Peck, was “disgust[ing]” because it meant that Kenney and LaGrange were “uphold[ing] racism and hate”.

This led Widdowson to engage in satire with her character. The satire deployed the words used in previous tweets – “hate”, “mass graves”, “killing fields”, and “ghouls” – in a slightly exaggerated fashion.

On June 10, MRU President Tim Rahilly stated that there had been a “heartbreaking discovery of 215 children buried in unmarked graves at a former Kamloops residential school”. He urged people to stop and reflect on the impact that this was having, and to help people who were grieving the most.

On June 12, Widdowson responded on her Facebook page to a story about an article written by Brian Giesbrecht in the Winnipeg Sun. Giesbrecht urged people not to rush to judgment “without all the facts”, as there were many abandoned cemeteries in Canada. The fact that cemeteries were forgotten did not mean that something sinister had occurred. This could be the situation in the Kamloops case, Giesbrecht pointed out.

In response to Giesbrecht’s column, an indigenous leader referred to his arguments as “hateful”, “callous”, “drivel” and a “denial of the atrocities inflicted upon Indigenous peoples”. The leader stated that no more interviews would be granted to the media outlet because of it, and an apology was demanded. The column was removed from the Winnipeg Sun‘s website.

This led Widdowson to provide commentary about the response to Giesbrecht on her Facebook page. She maintained that this was indicative of “the creeping totalitarianism of wokeism”, as not even one dissenting view could be allowed.

Widdowson then satirized her own position on Twitter. This Tweet attempted to expose, in a satirical way, the irrational and rent-seeking character of the claims of neotribal elites.

On June 14, a former MRU indigenous studies scholar argued that “‘colleagues’ [were mocking]” indigenous suffering.

An MRU professor then maintained that “universities must absolutely fire racists who deny the real harm of the residential schools for indigenous peoples”, as “kowtowing to them undermines everything a university does for decolonization”.

On June 17, a CBC article noted that Chris Champion, the editor of The Dorchester Review, had stated that it was misleading to compare the Kamloops case to the holocaust and imply that children were deliberately killed. This led Dr. Carla Peck to state that “James Keegstra was a Holocaust-denying classroom teacher”, implying that his views were similar to those of “a genocide-denying consultant…” (i.e. Champion).

Peck also referred to the work of Dan Panneton, who stated that “holocaust deniers often use the existence of a swimming pool at Auschwitz to undermine accusations of genocide”. It was asserted that The Dorchester Review tweets and the rhetoric of holocaust deniers were similar.

This comparison of the Kamloops Indian Residential School to Auschwitz led Widdowson to satirize Peck’s post.

After the announcement that 751 unmarked graves had been found in a cemetery by the Cowessess First Nation, a former MRU professor began to take people to task for their plans to celebrate Canada Day. He called Erin O’Toole a “ghoul” for encouraging this and stated that “the country should be grieving, not celebrating”. Those who “get indignant” and “dig in [their] heels about unreservedly celebrating Canada”, in his view, illustrated why the horrors of the residential schools were perpetrated for over a hundred years.

This led Widdowson to satirize those who were castigating people who were planning to celebrate Canada Day. Widdowson also was trying to draw attention to what she perceived to be the absurdity of comparing the residential schools to concentration camps and asserting that Canada was a genocidal state like Nazi Germany.

Widdowson also satirized those who used the #KKKanadaday hashtag, which implied that Canada Day celebrations were similar to the rallies of the Klu Klux Klan.

As a result of her Tweets, the Students’ Association of MRU (SAMRU) issued a press release condemning Widdowson’s comments on social media that they claimed were “mocking the unmarked graves of Indigenous children”. It argued that her Tweets showed that she was “misus[ing] academic power”, “demonstrat[ing] a tolerance for lethal behaviour”, and creating a “culture of fear” on campus. There should be “alternatives for certain required courses”, SAMRU asserted, as Widdowson’s Tweets raised questions about whether students would be “treated and graded fairly”.

On February 15, 2022, a number of months after participating on a panel on the unmarked graves and working with a research group on the residential schools, Widdowson published “Billy Remembers” on the Kamloops case. This essay documented the lack of evidence for the allegations about the “remains of 215 children” being “discovered”. The claims, Widdowson argued, showed some similarities to the hysteria that was created during the Satanic abuse moral panic in the 1980s.