Tag Archives: Mount Royal University

Prof. Frances Widdowson – Latest Victim of Campus Cancel Culture. Lecture Cancelled Because Her Questioning Residential Schools Narrative Offends the University

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BREAKING: The Department of Indigenous Studies and others vehemently condemn Frances Widdowson

Hymie RubensteinJan 27

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A scheduled February 1, 2023 lecture at the University of Lethbridge (U of L) by Dr. Frances Widdowson whose unfair dismissal in December 2021 from her tenured position at Calgary’s Mount Royal University [MRU] has been reported on several times in this newsletter, including in the piece below, has created a firestorm of controversy.The REAL Indigenous Issues NewsletterFighting Back Against Big Brother’s LoveAs most active readers know, Frances Widdowson is a former professor of Economics, Justice, and Policy Studies at Mount Royal University unfairly fired by the university in December 2021 for daring to be a vocal advocate for academic freedom and free speech…Read morea month ago · 10 likes · 2 comments

Hundreds of people have digitally signed a petition on Change.org seeking to have the event cancelled. The petition states:

Her presence on campus not only denigrates the status of the University by giving space to a speaker who promotes historical falsities and racial bigotry, but endangers students’ well-being and safety.

The petition has attracted the attention of U of L President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Mike Mahon, who issued the following statement:

The University of Lethbridge has become aware of a guest speaker, invited by one of our faculty members, whose views are in conflict with a number of the values held by the University — including the University’s stated commitment to the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. We strongly disagree with assertions that seek to minimize the significant and detrimental impact of Canada’s residential school system. I have heard from many students, faculty and staff who have expressed their disappointment that this event is taking place. It is encouraging that a concurrent evidence-based counter-lecture has also been organized, and that the vast majority of our community finds these views abhorrent.

The U of L Statement on Free Expression states that its “mandate affirms its commitment to protect free inquiry and scholarship, facilitate access to scholarly resources, and support artistic expression and free and open scholarly discussion of issues.

Mahon also said that debate or deliberation on campus “may not be suppressed because the ideas put forward are thought by some, or even more, to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or misguided.”

This largely virtue-signaling reply that nevertheless upholds academic freedom and constitutionally protected speech did not satisfy the U of L’s indigenous studies department which just issued the following statement full of distortions and other errors as shown by my annotated comments in UPPER CASE BOLD.

The Department of Indigenous Studies vehemently condemns the anti-Indigenous rhetoric routinely disseminated by former MRU professor Frances Widdowson and deplores the fact that she is being given a platform to legitimize that discourse on our campus. [ANTI-INDIGENOUS RHETORIC IS ANYTHING THAT REMOTELY CHALLENGES THE RHETORICALLY FALACIOUS MAINSTREAM NARRATIVE] Widdowson has left us in no doubt as to her positions; she has regularly espoused these views through published articles, public speaking, broadcast podcasts, and other public forums. She specifically denounces the TRC’s classification of the Residential School system as genocide and disputes the veracity of the unmarked graves of Indigenous children found at the sites of multiple former Residential School sites. [GENOCIDE? THERE IS NOT SINGLE VERIFIED EXAMPLE OF A CHILD MURDERED BY A STAFF MEMBER AT ANY RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL; NO “UNMARKED GRAVES” HAVE BEEN LOCATED OUTSIDE THOSE IN KNOWN INDIGENOUS RESERVE GRAVEYARDS. NONE.]

The facts of the Residential School system and the experiences of Indigenous children within that system were rigorously established through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. [THE WORK OF THE TRC AND THE QUESTIONING OF THE INDIGENOUS “SURVIVORS” WAS THE FURTHEST THING FROM “RIGOROUS.”]

  • At least 150,000 Indigenous children across multiple generations were removed from their families and communities. [MOST OF THESE STUDENTS VOLUNTARILY ATTENDED THE SCHOOLS.]
  • •They were processed through an alien education system that was designed to forcibly remove all vestiges of their original identities, cultures, and languages. [THIS IS A GROSS DISTORTION EVEN OF WHAT IS CONTAINED IN THE TRC REPORTS AND BY THE VOLUMINOUS MATERIAL ON THIS BRAND NEW SITE: https://indianresidentialschoolrecords.com/.
  • •These policies, which are a matter of historical record within Canada, clearly meet the United Nations definition of genocide, as listed in Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. [NOTHING COULD BE LESS CLEAR BECAUSE THE IRS AND OTHER INDIGENOUS EXPERIENCES SATISFY NOT A SINGLE ELEMENT OF ARTICLE II:“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
    1. Killing members of the group;
    2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
    3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
    4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
    5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

A protest organized by the U of L Student Action Assembly is scheduled to be held at the university’s Anderson Hall building beginning at 4:00 p.m. on February 1, 2023, prior to the start of Widdowson’s speech at 4:30 p.m.

Don’t be surprised if the ferocity of this protest results in the cancellation of Dr. Widdowson’s address.

At the same time that Widdowson will give her speech at the U of L, Dr. Sean Carleton, a self-declared “settler” on indigenous soil, and assistant professor of history and native studies at the University of Manitoba will deliver a virtual presentation, titled, “Truth before Reconciliation: How to Identify and Confront Residential School Denialism.”

“Students Against Bigotry” Threaten “Bold Response” to Lecture by Nationalist Author Prof. Ricardo Duchesne

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“Students Against Bigotry” Threaten “Bold Response” to Lecture by Nationalist Author Prof. Ricardo Duchesne 

 

The anti-free speech communists’ and Cultural Marxists’ only response to intelligent discussion of immigration is a chorus of “fascist” and “neo-Nazi” and efforts to shut the offending writer of speaker’s meeting down.

 

 

 

 

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The so-called “Students for Freedom of Expression” (not to be confused with the equally repugnant “Free Speech Club”) are at it again.

After hosting radical atheist and friend of the far right Armin Navabi last week, the Students for Freedom of Expression (SFE) have announced they plan to bring Ricardo Duchesne and Mark Hecht to UBC on Wednesday, October 9.

Duchesne, who joined the SFE at UBC last November, is the neo-Nazi University of New Brunswick professor forced to retire in June after more than 100 of his colleagues signed an open letter condemning his extremism. He regularly talks about the racial superiority of Europeans and his 2017 book, published by a fascist publishing house, is called “Canada in Decay: Mass Immigration, Diversity, and the Ethnocide of Euro-Canadians.”

Meanwhile, Hecht is the author of that white nationalist opinion piece in the Vancouver Sun arguing that “Canada should say goodbye to diversity, tolerance, and inclusion.” He’s a sessional instructor of geography at Calgary’s Mount Royal University, and his self-published 2016 book is titled “Why Europeans Naturally Invaded the New World.”

If this event goes ahead as planned, Students Against Bigotry will have to prepare a bold response. Will you join us in standing up to white nationalism and xenophobia at UBC?

Ricardo Duchesne taught sociology at UNB while moonlighting on white nationalist podcasts and spouting racist conspiracy theories

This exposé of the neo-Nazi professor in the US-based Huffington Post is what prompted his colleagues to start an open letter condemning him. “It’s a case that shows how, when white supremacists are left to fester, they can co-opt legitimate institutions and public discourse.”

 

 

Mark Hecht saw that the Vancouver Sun and Postmedia were sympathetic to white nationalist views, and he took advantage

Following the publication of his vile anti-immigrant op-ed and the backlash that ensued, there was no shortage of articles criticizing Postmedia, discussing how it happened, and linking it to the much bigger problem of the media’s shift to the (far) right.

The Hellenic Community of Vancouver hasn’t learned from its mistakes

In March, it was Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern. This time, it’s Maxime Bernier and the far-right People’s Party of Canada. A demonstration is being planned for Wednesday.

Have you told your friends and classmates about our Amazon petition?

We’re now at over 100 signatures, but that won’t be enough to draw the admin’s attention to this vital issue. Please share it widely and help us get our next 100 signatures! #NeverAgainIsNow

SAB supports the climate strike!

Climate catastrophe isn’t just an environmental issue — it’s also a social, political, and economic one. In short, it’s an everything issue. And to change everything, we need everyone. With this in mind, we hope to see you on Friday!