On May 2, 2024, Gabrielle Weasel Head (formerly Gabrielle Lindstrom) gave a presentation with Shelley Wiart on “Countering Indian Residential School Denialism” at the Liberal Education Conference in Calgary. It received a standing ovation from the audience.
Widdowson’s notes of this presentation are provided below.
On February 25, 2023, Shelley Wiart became known because she asked an indigenous scholar at MRU to demand that the Mount Royal University Library remove Frances Widdowson’s books. The book singled out for condemnation was one that Widdowson had co-edited with Albert Howard. The book was Aboriginal Education in Canada: Searching for Solutions, which contained both parallelist and integrationist perspectives.
On October 7, 2024, Shawn England, a MRU History professor, posted CBC’s coverage of how Widdowson was found to have been wrongfully terminated from Mount Royal University by Arbitrator David Phillip Jones.
Katherine Boggs, a MRU geology professor, then expressed her opinion that what was done to Widdowson was “very nasty” and that “MRU should not be proud” of what happened and “we should be embarassed to have permitted that mobbing”.
England then provided the context about the word “mobbing”.
In response to England and Boggs, Gabrielle Weasel Head asserted “are you two for real???”. She then said to England “do you even understand the amount of harm [Widdowson] had perpetrated throughout her ‘career’ and to insinuate she’s been mobbed as if the media is truth! Then to post on social media which clearly demonstrates how your sucked right into the politics of dualism colonial binaries. Wow!” Weasel Head then told Boggs that “MRU had every reason to be proud!” for terminating Widdowson.
Francesca Simon, an employee in MRU’s Wellness Centre, then agreed with Lindstrom that “MRU had every reason to be proud!”
When England questioned Weasel Head about her reaction to him, Weasel Head asserted that “clearly [Widdowson’s] venom and hate haven’t touched your life beyond you ‘professional’ sympathy”.
Gabrielle Weasel Head then responded to Boggs, implying that Widdowson should not be treated with “dignity and respect” because she didn’t “accord that to whole groups of people” and that Lindstrom “[couldn’t] believe I’m reading this [defense of Widdowson] from another educator”.
Katherine Boggs then replied to Weasel Head.
Gabrielle Weasel Head then replied to Boggs that “clearly I know exactly who you both are based on your comments”.
Katherine Boggs then repeated that Weasel Head did not know who she was, that Weasel Head’s comments illustrated the worst of Facebook, and that Weasel Head’s “comments were accusatory”.
Another exchange between Boggs and Weasel Head ensued, where Weasel Head stated that Widdowson had no decency.
Francesca Simon claimed that there was a “fine line between academic freedom and hate speech…crossed without consequence apparently”. This resulted in an exchange with Shawn England about canadian hate speech laws. Simon did not respond to Widdowson’s inquiry about what Widdowson’s “hate speech” was and how it was “crossed without consequence”. As Widdowson was terminated, it is hard to see how there were no consequences.
Widdowson also posted two of the Episodes about Weasel Head (Weasel Head’s last name was Lindstrom in 2020) – “Episode 3: When Defending Science is Believed to be ‘Racist and Discriminatory’” and “Episode 12: Did Gabrielle Lindstrom ‘Harass’ Frances Widdowson“. These posts showed that in all of Widdowson’s exchanges with Weasel Head, she was responding to Weasel Head’s attempts to get Widdowson fired by mobilizing an anonymous student group against her. Weasel Head was initially upset because Widdowson had asked questions about “indigenous science”, and Lindstrom believed that questioning “indigenous science” was “racist and discriminatory”.
