Widdowson turns to court after talk shut down by protest
Freedom of speech at risk, ex-prof argues
Widdowson turns to court after talk shut down by protest
Jesse snyder
15 Apr 2026
EDMONTON • A former university professor who became a contentious figure for questioning claims about the existence of Indigenous unmarked graves says the outcome of her ongoing court battle will set a crucial precedent for academic freedom in Canada.
Frances Widdowson, who launched a legal challenge against University of Lethbridge in July 2023, had her arguments heard by a Court of King’s Bench judge on Friday. Widdowson, a former Mount Royal University professor, argues that the University of Lethbridge restricted her right to free speech when it cancelled her public talk in February 2023.
Blackfoot First Nation protesters and other demonstrators pressured the university to cancel the event, and then-president Michael Mahon consented to their calls amid what the school describes as security concerns. Widdowson — who has prompted similar protests at two other Canadian universities — said the cancellation mirrors a worrying trend of campuses restricting precisely the sorts of open debates they are meant to encourage.
“People need to take this seriously, because universities are incredibly important institutions in a democratic society,” Widdowson said. “They let knowledge be disseminated, they’re important in the training of professionals, and are also a bulwark against authoritarianism. All of those functions now are under threat, because you have institutions like the University of Lethbridge, which is not academic at all anymore and has been completely captured by Indigenization activists.”
Court hearings have focused on whether the university had an obligation to protect free speech in the face of the alleged “very real harms” of hosting the event, according to a legal brief filed to the court by Widdowson’s lawyer, Glenn Blackett. Following Friday’s hearings, a ruling is expected in the coming months.
Widdowson has attracted opposition primarily for work in which she has doubted the claims put forward about Indigenous unmarked graves in Canada, with a focus on Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, previously known as the Kamloops Indian Band, which has claimed that 215 “missing children” are buried in unmarked graves on the site of a former B.C. residential school.
Nearly five years after the initial claim, however, the First Nation has not exhumed the remains of any children. In a February update, the First Nation said its investigation using ground-penetrating radar is ongoing. Widdowson has made a point of emphasizing the lack of evidence, including in a 2025 Youtube documentary called “What Remains: Aftermath of the Kamloops Mass Grave Deception.” (A 2021 Assembly of First Nations resolution referred to the Kamloops claims as an example of “burial sites or mass graves.”)
Widdowson said it was an “open question” whether any children were secretly buried on the Kamloops site but said the allegations need to be scrutinized and supported. The graves are regularly cited as evidence of Canada’s alleged genocide against First Nations.
“Claims should be
asserted
NEVER BEEN A COMPLAINT ABOUT THE QUALITY OR ETHICS OF HER SCHOLARSHIP.
on the basis of reason, evidence and logic, not the basis of a prescribed doctrine,” she said.
The planned February 2023 event was about how “wokeism” was undermining academic freedom. Widdowson agreed to the talk on the invitation of Paul Viminitz, a professor who the university later fired in 2024. (Viminitz was previously a party to Widdowson’s Court of King’s challenge, and Jonah Pickle, a former student, is currently an applicant).
Widdowson has since called on the Alberta government to intervene in her case, but the government has thus far declined.
Elizabeth Harper, spokesperson for Advanced Education Minister Myles Mcdougall, said the province’s universities are obligated to report on their free speech policies, adding that “the University of Lethbridge has been asked to review their policies to ensure that they support free speech.”
Matthew Woodley, a lawyer at Reynolds Mirth Richards & Farmer LLP who is representing the University of Lethbridge, was not available for an interview, according to his assistant.
In a statement, University of Lethbridge spokesperson Trevor Kenney said that the same week of the cancelled talk, Widdowson led two other lectures at the university without incident.
“The University cancelled a room booking for an event involving Frances Widdowson as the result of concerns relating to possible harms raised by members of the University community, including safety risks,” Kenney said.
On May 27, 2021, the Kamloops Indian Band, or Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc, claimed it had located the remains of 215 children — “some as young as three years old” — in an apple orchard at a former residential school site. The claims were based on the results of ground-penetrating radar, which is capable of detecting ground disturbances but does not confirm the presence of human remains.
The next month, the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan said it had found 751 potential unmarked graves at a cemetery near the former Merieval Indian Residential School. (The Cowessess chief emphasized at the time that they were not mass graves, but unmarked ones.)
Some cities including Victoria cancelled their Canada Day celebrations that year, while the government ordered the Canadian flag on federal buildings to fly at half-mast for several months.
Widdowson said Canada’s First Nations deserve to have their many struggles addressed on a foundation of truth.
“If we don’t have the truth, we will not be able to figure out the best way to organize society,” she said. “That’s what’s happened to Aboriginal people now, is that they’re being fed a whole bunch of falsehoods, which are making it impossible for Aboriginal people to thrive and live full lives in modern society.”
In December 2021, Mount Royal University, Widdowson’s former employer, fired her over allegations that a series of tweets she had posted were a form of harassment.
In 2024, an arbitrator found that Widdowson’s dismissal was unwarranted and that, despite her controversial views, there had “never been a complaint about the quality or ethics of her scholarship.”
