Minister Says Alberta Will Further Protect Free Speech on Campus After University of Lethbridge Cancels Guest Professor’s Lecture

Frances Widdowson, a former associate professor in the department of economics, justice, and policy studies at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, in an undated photo. Courtesy of Frances Widdowson

After controversy over the University of Lethbridge’s (U of L) decision to cancel a guest speaker’s public lecture on Feb. 1, an Alberta government minister has vowed the province will be taking further steps to protect campus free speech.

Demetrios Nicolaides, Alberta’s minister of advanced education, told The Epoch Times Tuesday that the U of L’s decision to cancel former professor Frances Widdowson’s public lecture on Feb. 1 went against the province’s position regarding free speech on post-secondary campuses.

“It should be for students, not university administrators, to make the final decision about whether to listen to a speech or not,” said Nicolaides.

While the government’s position “should not be construed as agreement with any past comments” made by Widdowson, added Nicolaides, the province will be “announcing new steps to strengthen free speech” on university campuses “in the near future.” He did not provide a date.

Nicolaides said that he only learned on Jan. 30 that “controversial guest speaker” Widdowson was scheduled to speak at U of L and was subsequently cancelled.

While past comments made by Widdowson are “controversial,“ said the minister, he said it was important that universities and colleges ”foster a strong culture of free speech and diverse viewpoints, even when those viewpoints are deemed controversial, or even offensive, barring speech intended to incite hatred or violence of course.”

Diverse Viewpoints

Widdowson told The Epoch Times that she was invited to speak by a philosophy professor at the school and planned her public lecture on the topic “How Woke-Ism Threatens Academic Freedom.”

Widdowson said she is “adamant” that she will be at the university as scheduled, offering a public lecture in the atrium, which is a public space. She said she will not capitulate to a “woke mob.”

“If they do not want me to give that talk, they can remove me for trespassing and being a threat to the psychological sensitivity of all these activists,“ she said.

Widdowson has ongoing litigation underway against Mount Royal University, which terminated her from her position as a tenured professor in December 2021, allegedly after she organized a panel to discuss the topic “Does Trans Activism Negatively Impact Women’s Rights.”

Widdowson invited feminist speaker and journalist Meghan Murphy to participate, as well as a transgender activist to participate in the event. Later, the professor was accused of being hostile to trans-identifying individuals.

Writer Meghan Murphy (2nd R) walks with security before speaking during a panel discussion on gender identity in Vancouver on Nov. 2, 2019. Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press

Widdowson also wrote a book in 2008 about aboriginal issues.

“Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation” suggested that there was an “industry” built around the aboriginal peoples that “failed to address the fundamental economic and cultural basis of native problems, leading instead to policies that offer a financial benefit to the leadership while entrenching the misery of most aboriginal people.”

Widdowson said she has been “fighting hard” to promote her view that “universities are academic institutions, where you should be able to discuss a diversity of viewpoints and critically analyze contentious topics.”

“Here we have a clear violation of the Chicago principles. They haven’t even pretended that there’s some kind of violent threat on campus,” said Widdowson.

Campus Speech

Alberta adopted the University of Chicago Statement on Principles of Free Expression, also known as the “Chicago principles,” in 2019, which states that universities must promote freedom of debate and protect it from potential restrictions.

“Although members of the University community are free to criticize and contest the views expressed on campus, and to criticize and contest speakers who are invited to express their views on campus, they may not obstruct or otherwise interfere with the freedom of others to express views they reject or even loathe,” state the Chicago principles.

Widdowson’s lecture at U of L planned to cover four “terrible cases” of “wokeism” that “threaten academic freedom,” she said, describing circumstances where various individuals were cancelled or otherwise disrupted by the school.

U of L President Mike Mahon did not return requests for comment, but in a statement posted on the university website on Jan. 30 said that the school has received “considerable input” and “must be attentive to the safety of our diverse community.”

The university had previously, on Jan. 26, decided to allow Widdowson’s lecture, issuing a statement that said: “Members of the University community have the right to criticize and question views expressed on campus, but they may not obstruct or interfere with others’ freedom of expression. Debate or deliberation on campus may not be suppressed because the ideas put forward are thought by some, or even most, to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or misguided.”

The university pledged to offer “support” to any members of the university community that the speech may “personally adversely affect.”

However, in a reversal on Jan. 30, Mahon said the university would now not “provide space” for the lecture to occur on campus, based on receiving “input” which “confirmed that assertions that seek to minimize the significant and detrimental impact of Canada’s residential school system are harmful.”

The university’s president said that despite a 2019 “commitment to free expression on our campus,” there are “limits to freedom of expression.”

“It is clear that the harm associated with this talk is an impediment to meaningful reconciliation,” Mahon said.

On Dec. 19, 2022, Grand Prairie MLA Tracy Allard was appointed by Alberta’s Premier Danielle Smith to a new role as the province’s parliamentary secretary for civil liberties.

Smith said the new position would focus, in part, on protecting free speech rights on university and college campuses.