Part One: Lack of Free Speech in Canada – Interview with Frances Widdowson

Beat the censors, sign-up for our newsletter: https://firstfreedoms.ca/call_to_action_pages/stay_informed/ In 2021, Frances Widdowson, PhD, was a professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta. Her specialty was governmental indigenous policy. At around the same time Widdowson was having “personnel issues” at Mount Royal, a professor at the University of Lethbridge invited her to deliver a talk on wokeism and how it threatens academic freedom. When word got out at Lethbridge, a small group—members of the students’ association, some indigenous studies faculty, and a women and gender studies professor—began to agitate; the group grew larger and a petition was put forth and the lecture was cancelled. Soon, Widdowson was fired from Mount Royal and she sued the University of Lethbridge in defence of her right to freedom of expression which includes the right for people to hear. She is not seeking financial restitution; her goal is for the lecture to proceed. In the interview with Barry, Widdowson explains how previously, it was acceptable for her theories on indigenous policy to be posited; she reveals these theories, and she reminds us how identity politics has become totalitarian in nature.