Student protesters clash with former professor Francis Widdowson

The University of Lethbridge was the scene of a noisy protest on Wednesday involving controversial professor Francis Widdowson.

The University sent out a message to students that a controversial figure was planning to engage the campus community. Video shows a large crowd of students converging on Widdowson, making noise whether with instruments or some shouting obscenities.

Widdowson has been met by angry protestors before at universities across the country, as she challenges what she calls falsehoods about ‘unmarked graves’ at a former residential school in Kamloops. She was planning to have a sit-down dialogue with students at the U of L, but that never happened. As the protest got larger and louder over several hours, police eventually moved in a carried Widdowson away.

In a statement released late yesterday the University said “When it became clear the interactions had no defined end and that continuing to deploy resources in this manner was not sustainable, the University issued a trespass notice to the individual at approximately 5:15 p.m. Universities are places where controversial ideas should be examined and critiqued through rigorous, evidence-based inquiry. In this instance, the University provided room for those in attendance to express their viewpoints and for those viewpoints to be contested.”