A 'grave error': Author Frances Widdowson reflects on the controversy surrounding her book in Quesnel, BC

Dr. Frances Widdowson is one of only a handful of academics who actually cares about the truth portion of truth and reconciliation. She has been piercing the smoke screen around Indigenous issues in Canada for decades. With works like her 2008 must-read "Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation," she has proven that her commitment to honest, critical, and academic research is not dissuaded by feigned politeness or the political correctness that Canadians are accustomed to any time First Nations' issues are addressed.

Rebel News has had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Widdowson before, first when she tackled a great deal of the misinformation being shared about the purported unmarked graves in Kamloops, and then again when she was terminated from Mount Royal University in Calgary for refusing to bend the knee to woke ideologies.

Since then she co-authored a book titled "Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth About Residential Schools)," which takes an in-depth look at the dishonest and exaggerated claims that have been made about residential schools, particularly in Kamloops.

Enter controversy: A private citizen in the town of Quesnel, BC happened to pick up a copy of "Grave Error" and found it interesting enough to want to share with friends. Unfortunately for her, she happened to be the wife of Quesnell City Mayor Ron Paull, who now finds himself enduring a firestorm of cancel culture and calls to resign, all because his wife found a book interesting.

For a more detailed look at how the controversy unfolded, my colleague Drea Humphrey recently published an in-depth report that includes an interview with Quesnel’s mayor.

Wanting to set the record straight and respond to allegations that the book engages in residential school denialism, Frances Widdowson made her way to a Quesnel City Council meeting. There, she hoped she might have a chance to engage in civil conversation and correct some erroneous claims being made both about her book and about residential schools at large.

What ensued was a brutal wave of dehumanizing personal attacks from several Quesnel city councillors, effectively deeming her, and apparently anyone else willing to probe the residential school narrative, Orwellian nonpersons.

Rebel News was fortunate to once again be joined by Dr. Widdowson to discuss the surreal behaviour she endured at the hands of some of Quesnel’s elected officials and the continued unwillingness among many to have real conversations about Canada’s legacy of residential schools.