Academic Frances Widdowson has filed a $3 million defamation lawsuit against the University of Lethbridge and several individuals, alleging that the defendants made false and defamatory statements about her that contributed to an environment in which she faced discrimination and violence.
The lawsuit names the university’s board of governors, president, faculty association, vice-provost, and several faculty association and committee members as defendants.
The lawsuit, filed Aug. 14 in the Alberta Court of King’s Bench, centres on the university’s statements and actions following Widdowson’s Feb. 4 appearance on campus, where she participated in a discussion on whether residential schools were “genocidal” at the invitation of Anthony Hall, a professor emeritus.
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial in Lethbridge and $1 million in general damages for defamation, $1 million in punitive damages, and $1 million in aggravated damages. It also asks that further special damages be considered at trial.
The claim alleges that Widdowson’s reputation was harmed by the defendants’ conduct, resulting in lost professional opportunities, and seeks a permanent injunction requiring the defendants to remove the statements in dispute.
Widdowson told The Epoch Times that the university and faculty’s conduct surrounding her Feb. 4 appearance appeared to be “encouraging other institutions and the students and the faculty and those other institutions to be seeing me in this way that justifies me being assaulted.”
The University of Lethbridge told The Epoch Times that it is preparing a response to the lawsuit.
“The University will be filing its Statement of Defence in due course, in which it will contest a number of assertions contained in the lawsuit,” a spokesperson for the university said in an Oct. 7 statement. “As this is a matter before the courts, the University cannot offer any further comment at this time.”
Widdowson, a former tenured associate professor at Calgary’s Mount Royal University, has drawn protests at universities for speaking out against identity politics and comments she has made on residential schools. She was dismissed by Mount Royal in 2021 amid disputes over her views, although an arbitrator later found that her being fired was not proportionate to her conduct.
Widdowson is a prominent critic of the 2021 claim by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation that ground-penetrating radar had identified the possible remains of 215 children at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. No human remains have been confirmed through excavation at the site.
Lawsuit
In her lawsuit, Widdowson alleges that the university falsely accused her of spreading “disinformation based on prejudice and hate” and made another statement alleging that her presence at the university constituted a “clear health and safety risk.”
“I’ve been at the University of Lethbridge four times now in the last three years, and every time it’s a new bunch of craziness that they engage in,” Widdowson said.
The claim alleges that the university sent an email to students and faculty about half an hour before Widdowson announced she would be on campus, describing her as a “controversial figure” who held “upsetting and disrespectful” views.
Following the university’s email, a crowd surrounded Widdowson and Hall on Feb. 4. The lawsuit alleges that members of the crowd tried to prevent them from holding the public forum, including by making loud noises, damaging items Hall was holding, and taking materials such as a backpack and whiteboard that Widdowson had brought.
The university issued a trespass notice against Widdowson later that day.
In a statement on April 27, the university said Widdowson had violated the standing trespass notice several times following the February incident, including by refusing to leave campus on April 25, after which she was removed by police.
The university also accused Widdowson of inciting disruption and mocking indigenous ceremonies in a social media post.
Widdowson’s lawsuit also focuses on a now-offline Feb. 12 statement issued by the Gender, Equity and Diversity Committee of the University of Lethbridge Faculty Association (ULFA).
The statement said committee members were “deeply disturbed by the presence of two individuals on campus last week intent on spreading disinformation based on prejudice and hate.”
It said the two were promoting “disinformation and lies” and alleged that Widdowson and Hall had arrived on campus “with the intention of inflicting harm on others.”
Widdowson said these were the “main defamatory claims that were made.” Her lawsuit argues that the statements went beyond disagreement with her views.
“An accusation that an academic knowingly disseminates falsehoods, and does so out of prejudice and hatred rather than genuine scholarly conviction, strikes at the foundation of her professional standing,” the lawsuit says.
It adds that the statement made “assertions of fact about her honesty, her motives, and her conduct,” rather than merely disagreeing with or disputing her beliefs.
The lawsuit states that Widdowson sent a letter to the committee on June 7 demanding that it provide evidence to support its accusations or retract the statement. It also asked that the committee refrain from making further unsubstantiated statements about her.
According to the lawsuit, no retraction, apology, or “substantive response” was received before the suit was filed on Aug. 14.
The claim alleges that the defendants’ conduct constituted an attempt “to silence, punish, and drive from public life a speaker whose views the Defendants opposed,” and sent a message that “unpopular or unwelcome inquiry will be met not with reasoned engagement but with condemnation, exclusion, and public shaming.”
None of the allegations have been tested in court.
Sweetgrass Ceremony
Widdowson’s lawsuit also references a sweetgrass ceremony held on the University of Lethbridge campus on Feb. 13.
According to the lawsuit, then-Vice Provost Leroy Little Bear said the ceremony would “dissipate the negative atmosphere brought by this individual to our community” and said that “the students did a fantastic job of neutralizing her.”
The lawsuit alleges that the comment amounted to approval of the confrontational behaviour directed toward Widdowson on Feb. 4.
“To state, on the University’s behalf and at a ceremony it convened, that the students ‘did a fantastic job of neutralizing her’ is to commend, as the institution’s own assessment, conduct that in fact comprised intimidation, harassment, and the theft and destruction of property,” the lawsuit states.
Widdowson said the lawsuit will require the University of Lethbridge to substantiate the accusations it made against her and said “this is going to be a time for accountability from these institutions.”
The lawsuit comes in the wake of a separate court victory involving the university’s decision to cancel a lecture Widdowson had scheduled in 2023 entitled “How Woke-ism Threatens Academic Freedom.”
The university initially approved the talk but later cancelled it following opposition from faculty, students, and alumni. This led to a Charter challenge by Widdowson and a student who had planned to attend the lecture.
On Sept. 17, Alberta Court of King’s Bench Justice Christopher Simard overturned the cancellation, finding that the university’s decision-making process was “fundamentally and fatally flawed” and inconsistent with the university’s own free-expression policy.
UVic Incident
Widdowson said she also intends to pursue legal action over what she alleges was an assault on her cameraman, Simon Hergott, at the University of Victoria on Sept. 29.
Widdowson said Hergott was struck several times and had liquid thrown at him and his camera while documenting her appearance on campus.
“I’m going to pursue it civilly. But I’m not going to stop with this one,” she said.
Widdowson added that the defamation lawsuit could take years, but noted that the costs of her academic freedom battle with Mount Royal are being borne by several unions and that her lawsuit against the University of Lethbridge is being supported by donor funding.
“Once we get some actual arguments, then we can talk about what is behind all their accusations,” she said. “So we’re going to have some accountability and transparency that we’ve never had over the last several years about these issues.”
