Frances Widdowson is an interesting person.
Politically, she’s been affiliated with the left over her academic career but she absolutely reject the censorship that the left has embraces, wants nothing to do with the wok movement, has studied and written on what she calls the aboriginal industrial complex and generally speaks her mind without fear.
She once would have described herself as embracing historical materialism, which centres around class, but has rejected Marxism. The last several years of being cancelled though has set her on a bit of a journey.
I’ve met Frances a few times now including when I was speaking at the George Jonas Freedom Awards for the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms where she was honoured.
This week, after she launched a lawsuit against the University of Lethbridge, I had her on the Full Comment Podcast to discuss the legal action and her fight for freedom of speech.
Here’s a brief clip from our chat on how universities are not performing their duties as they should anymore and have instead embraced authoritarianism.
And here is the full podcast. Listen here or where ever you get your podcasts including on Apple or Spotify.
From the official show notes:
Frances Widdowson was fired from her tenured professorship at a Calgary university after criticizing Black Lives Matter. She has been arrested on other campuses when she tried to engage students in debates about residential schools. Now she’s suing one university for $3 million, alleging it defamed her by accusing her of spreading hate and disinformation. She tells Brian she won’t be stopped because she believes she’s doing what academics are supposed to do: research, question and argue to get at the truth. And she explains why she believes so many professors and universities have betrayed that responsibility by pursuing ideological activism — or worse, by meekly surrendering what they really believe and submitting to woke repression. (Recorded October 7, 2026)
I'm on her side!
Free speech for people you disagree with (or even despise) is the point of free speech