On January 3, 2019, a faculty member in Frances Widdowson’s department told her that he was participating “on another social media platform” that was discussing the event Widdowson was organizing on behalf of the Rational Space Network “Does Trans Activism Negatively Impact Women’s Rights?”. On this platform, unknown to Widdowson, there “is heightened apprehension of MRU trans students and their allies (some in our own degree program) over what they see as an academic smokescreen to, in effect, marginalise them further”.
On February 26, 2019, two weeks before the “Does Trans Activism Negatively Impact Women’s Rights?” event, a women’s studies professor sent out a several Tweet thread erroneously claiming that women’s studies professors had not be invited to participate, calling feminists critical of trans activism “Terfs”, and implying that the event was attempting to stoke division.
In her Winter 2019 Student Perception of Teaching reports, Widdowson received, for the first time, comments that she was making “degrading comments”. This can be linked to the mobilization of students that occurred during the “Does Trans Activism Negatively Impact Women’s Rights?” event.
