Canada _ (Commonwealth Union) _ Frances Widdowson, a controversial professor, arrived to the University of Lethbridge on Wednesday, after a week of backlash from students and staff, and despite officials declaring earlier in the week that she would not be given a platform to speak. She was welcomed, however, by a huge, primarily hostile throng of hundreds of students and others who had gathered in anticipation of her presence in the university’s atrium. Before Widdowson arrived, one student screamed, “She shouldn’t be here!” to applause.
“Hate has no place on this campus!” said another. As Widdowson approached, the audience booed and yelled. She was mostly drowned out by the audience, although she did interact with a few people as she traveled across the atrium. She sought to relocate to another building on campus but was greeted with opposition and finally forced to leave. In an interview, Widdowson stated that while the event was “unruly,” she never felt threatened.
“Unfortunately, it was another attempt to use the heckler’s veto to prevent the dialogue from taking place,” Widdowson added, implying that “woke-ism” a term she uses informally to refer to the notion of reified postmodernism has taken over colleges. “Perhaps we are there with some of these institutions, where managers pander to activists.”
She was scheduled to give a lecture via web conference later that evening. Widdowson’s scheduled presence at the University of Louisville to give a seminar titled “How ‘Woke-ism Threatens Academic Freedom” was canceled following days of backlash from teachers and students. More than 2,500 people signed two petitions urging that the lecture be canceled. The institution had earlier stated that it would allow the lecture to go place, citing its free expression principle, but it did not agree with Widdowson’s beliefs. “They’ll have to call security and drag me away to stop me,” Frances Widdowson said in an email to CBC News on Monday.
