Frances Widdowson: The University of Lethbridge Falls to ‘Wokeism’

The University of Lethbridge, in Lethbridge, Alberta, in a file photo. Jeff Whyte/Shutterstock

Commentary

A few months ago Paul Viminitz, a philosophy professor at the University of Lethbridge (UL) in southern Alberta, invited me to give a talk on academic freedom. The talk originally intended to elaborate upon how “wokeism”—a phenomenon in which identity politics becomes totalitarian by insisting that the subjective beliefs of designated groups replace the search for an objective truth—had undermined the academic character of Mount Royal University in Calgary, where I had taught for many years. This circumstance, which resulted in my firing, was even more pronounced at the UL. Its prominence, in fact, resulted in the cancellation of my talk, underlining the threat that wokeism poses.

The university’s president, Michael J. Mahon, originally said that, while my views were “abhorrent,” my talk would be allowed to proceed because of the institution’s free speech policy. This changed, however, when Mahon came to believe that the “harm” that would be caused by my words was “an impediment to meaningful reconciliation” with indigenous peoples.

Mahon had changed his position because of intense lobbying from faculty and students. The most significant pressure came from the UL Students’ Union. The union’s indigenous representative, Nathan Crow, asserted that he was “appalled” by me being invited to speak, as his support for freedom of expression did not include “discriminat[ion against] a specific demographic” or spreading “false narratives.”

Many faculty members also supported the cancellation, and the UL’s entire Indigenous Studies Department put out a statement saying it “vehemently condemns” my “anti-Indigenous rhetoric” and “deplores” the fact that it was being legitimized. Even more surprising was the response of the UL’s Faculty Association, which, instead of defending Viminitz’s academic freedom to use university resources to organize a talk, expressed concern about the “hurtful speech” that was expected of me and the need to “protect” faculty and students from it.

The denunciation by the Indigenous Studies Department was especially instructive because it went on to argue that the Blackfoot people and “their traditional ways of knowing” must be “honored” by all people at UL. It appeared, therefore, that my scholarly questioning of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s concept of “cultural genocide” and my critical analysis of the improbable claims about the “unmarked graves” at the Kamloops Indian Residential School were inconsistent with the “ways of knowing” of indigenous people. As wokeism demands that these “ways of knowing” must be accepted to politically support indigenous groups, any critical analysis disputing them is now forbidden.

All of this is a microcosm of what is happening in universities across the country. Starting about 20 years ago, activists began to take over the administrative machinery of universities. This reached a tipping point with the killing in the United States of George Floyd in 2020. While identity politics used to be one position among many, its totalitarian form now means that everyone must pretend to accept the views of the oppressed so that they supposedly can be empowered.

Opposing this takeover of universities is not going to be easy, and might not even be possible. The “woke” are now firmly in charge, and faculty activists and university “diversicrats” hire only those who are in agreement with the dogma. The only hope is through organization at the individual university, national and international levels. By bringing together faculty, students, and interested members of the public in organizations like the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship, serious efforts can be made to grapple with the problem and give support to those who want to protect the intellectual integrity of post-secondary education.

Unfortunately, it continues to be difficult to impress upon the public the importance of universities, as they are one of the main bulwarks against autocratic intrusions into society. Because wokeism demands cancellation of ideas that challenge its control, one “correct” view increasingly will be demanded. As we saw with MP Leah Gazan’s proposal to criminalize “genocide denial” in Canada, it won’t be long before people are jailed for heretical beliefs.

The current woke assault on academic freedom, freedom of expression, and the very concepts of truth, objective facts, and empirical knowledge brings to mind the insights of George Orwell. Soon after his novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” was published, Orwell gave the following warning in a BBC interview: “The moral to be drawn from this dangerous nightmare situation is a simple one. Don’t let it happen. It depends on you.”

The unhinged reaction to my presence at the University of Lethbridge shows the prescient nature of Orwell’s warning. As I have said elsewhere, totalitarianism is on the move. We need to fight back against it with everything we have before it is too late.

The essay-length version of this column was recently published in C2C Journal.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.