Professor Frances Widdowson has been a leading voice in the effort to debunk claims of “mass graves” at former residential school sites, including the infamous claim linked to the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Widdowson was even fired from her job as a professor at Alberta's Mount Royal University after she asserted the residential school program had educational benefits.

She was joined by a fellow academic, Jim McMurtry, along with One B.C. Leader Dallas Brodie and MLA Tara Armstrong for an event at Thompson Rivers University, where chaos erupted during the group's effort to engage with students over Canada's history with residential schools.

On Thursday's Rebel Roundup livestream, hosts Tamara Ugolini and Alexa Lavoie reacted to scenes from the event captured by Rebel News reporter Drea Humphrey.

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“Universities are supposed to be bastions of free expression and inquiry and debate and bringing ideas to the arena to be debated,” said Tamara. Yet, the furious students who confronted the group, including Drea, “are just parroting this idea that first you have to seek some sort of futile bureaucratic approval or authorization to record a video or conduct interviews in these public spaces.”

Drawing on a quote from slain American activist Charlie Kirk, Alexa said, “when people stop talking, it's when violence happens.” School campuses are creating these dangerous environments by vehemently rejecting any ideas that run counter to pervasive left-wing narratives.

“You are creating the violence that will arise afterwards because you are blocking debate, you are blocking exchange of ideas,” Alexa said, casting blame on the university and its teachers for “brainwashing” students into becoming radical activists.

Watch Drea Humphrey's full report from Thompson Rivers University

“I just don't know what happened between my time [in university] and now,” said Alexa, recalling how political debates were once open to a broader range of ideas.

“If you have the truth on your side, if you have the evidence, if you have the facts, then why do you need to act like a tantruming toddler,” wondered Tamara. “More people are starting to see this for what it is; they're starting to ask more questions,” she said.

“This idea that there are still 215 unmarked child graves at Kamloops Indian Residential School, without any evidence to show that that's accurate, based on highly inaccurate ground-penetrating radar, and the fact that the band themselves now calls these 'anomalies' instead of 'graves,' speaks for itself. But you can't even get that point across, because (protesters) brought drums and song to drown out any facts or questions that could be shared.”