University of Lethbridge sued by Frances Widdowson for defamation

A controversial figure and former professor is now on the legal offensive in the fight pertaining to the issue of freedom of speech on post-secondary campuses.

As it’s being reported by the National Post, Frances Widdowson is issuing a lawsuit worth $3 million against the University of Lethbridge after her experiences have involved multiple hostile encounters on campus in the last few years. She alleges the university accused her of spreading false information and hate.

This comes after the University of Lethbridge recently lost a ruling from the Court of Kings Bench that stated that the banning of Widdowson from leading a lecture on campus in 2023, was unlawful. The lecture in question focused on the topic if wokism threatened academic freedoms. It attracted immense pushback by students as Widdowson was accused on challenging, even denying, claims of mass graves at former residential school sites in Canada.

Widdowson did in fact show up to the university despite the lecture cancellation in an attempt to engage with students, but was disrupted with a loud mob of hundreds in the university foyer.

A similar circumstance occurred in February 2026, where another mob of students confronted Widdowson on engaging discussion of residential schools, after the university sent an email notice to students of a “controversial figure” visiting campus with “upsetting and disrespectful” views. She was ultimately carried out of campus by police because of a trespass notice the university places on her.

That same week, a sweetgrass burning ceremony was held to “cleanse” the campus of the “negative energy” of her presence. In her lawsuit, Francis claimed that action was defamatory if the university viewed her as a source of spiritual contamination.

The Justice in the recent court ruling said the university’s decision to cancel Widdowson’s initial lecture in 2023 was fundamentally and fatally flawed, and failed to consider her and her acquaintance protected rights under Section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The University acknowledges that they’re aware of the lawsuit, and are taking steps of their own in a statement to BCN, “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, including some that were reproduced in the National Post article. As this is a matter before the courts, the University cannot offer any further comment at this time.”

John Carpay, the president with Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, is blasting the university for how they treated Widdowson to get to this point, “The University of Lethbridge (like other Alberta universities) is not committed to the pursuit of truth, which requires a commitment to facilitating free speech on campus. Universities that censor speech on campus have no love for truth, and are not acting with integrity towards their own mission statements, which hold out “the pursuit of truth” as a key goal.  The provincial government needs to stop sending hundreds of millions of tax dollars to universities which violate the terms of receiving that money, one of which is upholding free speech on campus.”

Frances Widdowson says she continues to fight to be reinstated at Mount Royal University where she was initially terminated, and has expressed her readiness to return to the University of Lethbridge for any future lectures.