How Low Can You Go, DEI-Infused Canadian Broadcasting Corporation?!!!

"I found out recently that I was deceived by social activists in an elaborate scheme dating back to January. A production group with what I now know has a fake name and fake identities gave me a friendly interview about my book A Day with Sir John A, and about Sir John A. Macdonald, back in February. They connected me with a fake company called Heritage Figures Canada with a fake website and 'hired' me to perform consulting work for them. We had what I now know were fake meetings, fake documents, fake commercial shoot, fake prototype of a Sir John A. collectible. Then in a second filmed interview last week, they turned on me, and it was revealed to have all been a setup in order to demonize Sir John A. and smear me."

It turns out this is a taxpayer-funded CBC and [Aboriginal Peoples Television Network] project."

Conservative Party of B.C. staffer, Lindsay Shepherd

 

"These pranks have their place, to challenge the powerful, but the CBC is going after those of us who are trying to speak the truth in the face of institutional censorship."

"Public funds should not be spent to silence dissidents and prevent a reckoning about the Kamloops '215' deception that has been promoted by universities and the media for five years."

"I have nothing to hide. I'm an honest academic who is trying to understand Aboriginal non-Aboriginal relations." 

Mount Royal University (fired) Professor Frances Widdowson

Questions are being asked about taxpayer-funded activism and media ethics after former Mount Royal University professor Dr. Frances Widdowson and author Lindsay Shepherd alleged they were specifically targeted in an elaborate prank operation.  Image generated by ChatGPT AI

 

Outspoken critics of unverified claims of 215 Indigenous children's bodies 'discovered' by ground-penetrating radar on the property of a Kamloops, B.C. Indian Residential School have found themselves isolated, unemployed, shunned and now targets of the nation's public broadcaster in league with an Indigenous media entertainment group. Punishment for denying the received wisdom of Canada having committed a 'genocide' against First Nations; colonialists versus indigenous peoples.

 

Lindsay Shepherd, in defense of Canada's first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, recently published a children's book to set the record straight; that Sir John A. was a man to be respected as far as the Indigenous population was concerned; while being a man of his times, he was also an authority figure who cared for the future of Canada's aboriginal people, hoping to bring them into mainstream society, to share in all the opportunities available to those with good educations who could participate at all levels of society in equal opportunities to flourish.

 

Despite which, the man who, during his time led Canada to a prosperous future, has been maligned as a 'white imperialist' colonialist, one of the architects of the Indian Residential School system, administered for the most part by the Catholic Church, for the purpose of giving Indian children a sound education that would lead to their integration into general society with all the opportunities for social and economic advancement to their credit. An aura of raging rejection saw his name taken off schools, his memorial statuary defaced and then toppled.

 

Despite denials from the CBC that there was no underhanded purpose in their participation in a scheme to humiliate and falsely accuse the two women of right-wing bias in their denials of the truthfulness of the two issues -- that of the unproven claims of Indigenous children being buried in unmarked graves, and the connection to Canada's first prime minister -- Lindsay Shepherd had an email exchange with the CBC's director of public relations, Katherine Wolfgang who wrote "(the CBC) can confirm that this project is in early production for CBC entertainment and (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network/APTN)".

 

Those involved in this 'prank' evidently knew Shepherd's home address, her children's names, and her bank account information...despite privacy laws that appeared to be no concern of the CBC. Frances Widdowson was flown from Calgary to Vancouver for a supposed documentary project to be filmed, where a fake production company, Forge Media, paid for her flights and hotel room, handing her a $1,000 honorarium. During a filmed studio interview, two people entered the set to dump boxes of children's shoes on a table.

 

A memorial is seen outside a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., on June 13, 2021. In May that year, the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation shared that preliminary findings from a ground-penetrating radar survey found some 200 potential unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)

 

This was to represent the popularized piles of children's shoes that appeared in various places as public memorials to the "murdered" aboriginal children whose graves were illusional; where despite funding given to investigate fully and find evidence to support the allegations, no such action was ever taken. Believe, and respect the claims of murdered children or be labelled racist and worse; condoning the deaths of innocent children. This was the point at which Professor Widdowson realized the extent of the 'prank' she had been subjected to; brought to the studio under false pretences.

 

Her reaction was to livestream her experience. "I don't quite understand what you're going to do with it ... I don't understand what the context is. What is the program it is going to be released on"? she asked "culture jammer" Igor Vamos in a videoed interview. When she revealed that she was livestreaming the conversation, suddenly the studio lights were shut off, and as she was being walked out of the studio she continued to film.  

"Northland Tales [working title] is an Indigenous-led unscripted, half-hour comedy series in early production for CBC Entertainment and APTN. For clarity, CBC News and APTN News have no involvement in this production or prior knowledge of it. The project was first pitched at the Indigenous Screen Summit -- part of the Banff World Media Festival in 2024."

"CBC Entertainment joined APTN as a partner shortly thereafter. Social experiments and satirical prank shows are a long-established television format used by broadcasters and streamers around the world, including many public broadcasters. In this case, the Indigenous creators are using the format for Northland Tales. A form of comedy is being deployed to increase better understanding of historical injustices against Indigenous peoples and support truth and reconciliation in Canada."

"It is important for us in the execution that this entertainment series does not negatively impact our news brand. As the show is still in production, it's premature for us to comment on the creative."

Head of Public Affairs, Chuck Thompson, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) 

The CBC is being criticized for its role in an upcoming comedy series that conducted prank interviews with two women who have drawn controversy for their views on Canada's residential schools. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

 

 

 

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Shibboleths : Woke Mantra

"[I wasn't surprised at being fired, but shocked] at how much the university has deteriorated over the last year and a half for that to happen." 

"I was hoping that I was going to be able to work it out internally, but that seemed to be becoming more and more difficult."

"It became apparent that people could not tolerate differing points of view and were actively working to make me unable to function in the university."

"I knew things were being pretty poisoned, obviously, but I thought Mount Royal still was a university that valued intellectual exchanges."

"I tried to defend myself from that mob [academic mob harassing her on her stance on trans-activism and Indigenous issues], and then this led to all sorts of things that happened." 

Frances Widdowson, associate professor, economics, justice and policy studies, Mount Royal University, Calgary

"The university unequivocally supports academic debate and will always defend the rights of faculty related to academic freedom."

"However, academic freedom does not justify harassment or discrimination."

Mount Royal University statement

Frances Widdowson was a professor of policy studies at Mount Royal College. (Stuart Gradon / Calgary Herald)

 

A Canadian Senator, Lynn Beyak, was condemned, harassed and hounded for her statement denying that Canada was guilty of 'genocide' by instituting schools for Indigenous children in the 19th century forward, operated by religious orders, for the purpose of exposing native children to European ideas and academic studies and that for the most part, most children attending those schools had a sound, basic education enabling them to be independent and to become part of the larger Canadian community.

The Truth and Reconciliation Committee came to the conclusion that because the purpose was to 'take the Indian' out of these children and transform them to reflect European-based culture, the result was social-cultural 'genocide'. An opinion quick to be adopted by the government of the 21st century, with heartfelt apologies and promises that going forward into the future things would be different. Aboriginal voices, few as they were, that defended the schools were quickly silenced. Reparations went out to school 'survivors'.

 

Professor Widdoson had the temerity to disagree publicly with the conclusion that the residential school system was "genocidal", citing the fact that it gave Indigenous children an education that "normally they wouldn't have received". She believes that the backlash her statement engendered, an opinion that in Canada at the present time is akin to bloody murder in the wake of old cemeteries being found on schools' properties of children who had died over the years. Years when pathogenic diseases coursed through the general population taking their toll on children in the general population, but interpreted as the results of criminal neglect.

 

There were first-hand testimonies of adults who had attended some of the schools, describing inadequate food, loneliness, strict discipline, physical and psychological abuse -- and critics of the time expressing dismay over the lack of critical medical care of a vulnerable population.  All of which would be true. On the other hand, young people whom custom decreed must attend pricey, live-in private schools claimed similar trials and tribulations, levelling accusations of mistreatment, poor food, assaults; Britain's system of 'public' schools for children of the aristocratic strata included.

The former professor had taught at the university since 2008. In 2020 she declared the Black Lives Matter movement had "destroyed MBU" in its victimhood support strategies and emphasis on blaming present-day society for egregious social-cultural discrimination that occurred a century earlier. White privilege having motivated the condition of slavery. Blacks becoming the engine of agricultural and industrial economies. Handily overlooking the fact that in Africa, tribal antipathies led to some tribes using others for slave labour. And in North America there were also black slave-owners of other blacks.

The backlash that she was faced with over her opinionated remarks expressed in public, was also experienced by the university, horrified that one of its tenured professors would express such provocative and unwoke opinions -- at a time when liberal-left unctuousness to the insistence of Black Lives Matter groups censoring white society to the extent it demanded white society censor itself, and any institution, be it private industrial groups, halls of academia, government departments began falling over themselves to express their sincere apologies --  and would buck the trend, had them cowering.

The university, asked for comment on the matter, stated that since the case would be going to arbitration, neither the fired professor nor the institution would be commenting, but MRU did confirm that Widdowson "is no longer a faculty member", even while the school "will not be providing specific details on this personnel matter". So the university that practices academic freedom and "does not justify harassment or discrimination", is in effect condoning both, since it caved to one of its tenured staff being harassed and discriminated against. And went on to do the same to her in their august condemnation of academic freedom.

The petition at change.org to fire Professor Widdowson succeeded in persuading six thousand individuals to sign their petition. Which was more than sufficient for Mount Royal University administrators to feel justified in extracting themselves from a most uncomfortable position as an academic institution dedicated to disseminating the opportunity to acquire knowledge, to have an open mind, to learn how to think critically, to respect alternate opinions and engage in civil discourse. 

 

Frances Widdowson may not be a racist, but she made 'racist remarks' in the opinion of the opinion-makers and that is quite simply intolerable. Now, how likely is it that any other faculty members of MRU would be disposed to cry 'foul' and come to the defence of their former colleague, much less profess they may share some of her sentiments? At 'Rate My Professor', she influenced some students quite impressively with the quality of her teaching performance.  

"Tenure is basically a guarantee that the only reason you can be let go from your position at a university or college is for just cause — that is, you engaged in gross negligence or misconduct."  

"You can't be dismissed for your political views, your disciplinary views, your research, your teaching, as long as it conforms to professional standards." 
David Robinson, executive director, Canadian Association of University Teachers

Frances Widdowson had been an associate professor at Mount Royal University in the department of economics, justice and policy studies since 2008. (easyuni.com)