Canadian Universities Captured By Woke Totalitarianism

"Universities are in serious trouble because they've been seriously impacted by equity, diversity and inclusion ideology."

"That's the idea that in order to be inclusive you need to stop certain ideas from being discussed."

"This is across the board in universities in Canada. There's some obviously that are worse than others, but the University of Lethbridge is the worst of all of them."

"There's a lot of self censorship going on and a lot of direct censorship where universities take a political position and they make life difficult for anyone who challenges that position."

"My ultimate objective is to make universities academic spaces once more. I'm trying to sound the alarm about how important universities are for democratic societies." 

Professor Frances Widdowson

 

Professor Widdowson, a former associate professor in the department of economics, justice and policy studies at Mount Royal University in Calgary, is viewed by most Canadian academic institutions as a social/academic disrupter and by extension a health and safety risk. This view has tainted her value as an academic to those committed to practising DEI as a fulcrum around which all university departments are expected to operate.

 

In 2021 Professor Widdowson's position at the university was terminated. The university's own faculty association claimed alongside Professor Widdowson that her dismissal represented a breach of academic freedom, while an arbitrator ruled that the termination represented a disproportionate response from Mount Royal University. For her part, the professor views the University of Lethbridge which had raised a trespass notice over her presence, as hopelessly infected with the oppression of woke ideology's totalitarianism. 

"In recent years, Canadian universities have drifted from their core purposes — education and discovery — toward a divisive program of redistribution and social change."

"Ottawa bears significant responsibility for this shift. The federal granting councils for science and engineering, health and the social sciences have weaved “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) into their rules for access and adjudication."

"In practice, DEI now means: mandatory self‑identification questionnaires for applicants and reviewers, compulsory bias‑training modules, equity targets tied to eligibility for marquee programs, and grant criteria that reward conformity to identity‑based frameworks over scientific promise."

Mikko Packalen, Financial Post 

Aristotle Foundation

 

Professor Widdowson, in contravention to the accepted ideology of DEI and the effects of 'imperial colonialism', made herself persona non grata with-a-vengeance at Canadian universities when she pushed back in her politically incorrect observations  relating to the May 2021 assertion by the Tkemlups te Sewepemic Nation, when it declared that ground-penetrating radar had revealed the presence of hundreds of unmarked graves of First Nations children attending the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. 

 

Canadian flag at half-mast

That stunning 'revelation' that shocked the nation and made international headlines, and which led the-then prime minister to declare a genocide had been perpetrated on Canada's Indigenous communities, while ordering the Canadian flag at half-mast for six months was not related to reality. The contractor who had used the ground-penetrating radar had made it quite clear in his report that the anomalies registered were not those of dead bodies; they could have been anything, from buried and long-forgotten signage, to logs or any kind of discarded objects buried by time.

 

Millions in federal funding went out to the First Nations claiming such previously unknown graveyards of aboriginal children, to pay for deeper investigations into identifying whether there were human remains buried where they were said to be, or merely random anomalies within the soil. The years passed, the funds disappeared, but there were no startling revelations reflecting reality. Despite which no questioning of the fully accepted claims were to be countenanced. And Professor Widdowson did her share of  questioning.  "I argue that there's no evidence at this time for the existence of clandestine burials at Kamloops."

 

Critical race theory: 'Diversity' is not the solution, dismantling white supremacy is. Carleton University

 

A proposed address at University of Lethbridge called "How 'Wokism' Threatens Academic Freedom" scheduled by Professor Widdowson was cancelled in 2023. Her presence on the Lethbidge campus for an event in February saw a large protest from students banging drums and shouting abuse. That event persuaded the university to issue a trespass notice against Professor Widdowson. "Safety concerns and significant disruptions" at other universities caused by Professor Widdowson was the reason stated for the trespass notice.

 

When, in April, Professor Widdowson returned to the university she was deterred from  going on campus. She returned again, when she was ordered by security to leave, in recognition of the trespass order. When she protested "they called in the police and put me in handcuffs and dragged me out and put me in the paddy wagon, and then gave me a $600 ticket", she said. Which sounds rather like an action one might expect in a police state. "The University has reasonable grounds to believe that Widdowson's presence would again result in significant disruption that exceeds the University's ability to manage it", was the response to news media. 

 

Professor Widdowson's idea of teaching academic rigour is questioning rationales that do not necessarily make sense, to obtain a well-rounded explanation of why they should be accepted and for that purpose she uses Spectrum Street Epistemology where students are asked whether they strongly agree, strongly disagree or are neutral on positions much like the Kamloops graves controversy. Once a student makes a choice they are then asked for evidence to support their belief. "It's a very good way to get people to be thinking about the evidence that they are using to come to the understanding that they are", she explained.  

 

National Post.com

 

"By putting pressure on the political side, with the politicians, the legal side, and the cultural side, by going in with direct action and exposing the unbelievable totalitarianism which is starting to emerge on these campuses, I'm hoping that I'll be able to put universities in Canada back on an academic footing."

Professor Frances Widdowson