At right, a file photo of Frances Widdowson is pictured. She was granted tenure at Mount Royal University in Calgary in 2011, but the university terminated her employment on Dec. 20, 2021. That led to an arbitration hearing that involved 25 witnesses spread over 10 months.
The firing of a Calgary tenured professor who found herself in the headlines in 2022 for her comments tied to residential schools and the Black Lives Matter movement was disproportionate, even if her conduct did warrant discipline, an arbitrator has ruled.At right, a file photo of Frances Widdowson. She was granted tenure at Mount Royal University in 2011, but the university terminated her employment on Dec. 20, 2021.
"She has controversial views on a number of topics. However, there has never been a complaint about the quality or ethics of her scholarship; she has never received performance management counselling for either her teaching or scholarship; and the university has supported and recognized her scholarly activities," reads the decision from arbitrator David Phillip Jones.
In July 2021, Widdowson made a complaint against another colleague for his tweets. An investigation found in November 2021 that none of those tweets constituted harassment, and characterized Widdowson's complaint "as being malicious, frivolous, vexatious and made in bad faith." Widdowson's firing took place in December 2021.
The university, on the other hand, submitted that the case was about harassment and had nothing to do with academic freedom. Widdowson's conduct was just cause for a two-week suspension and the termination of her employment, the university said. When it came to Widdowson's firing, Jones wrote that there was just cause for discipline based on Widdowson's conduct, but that dismissal was not an appropriate penalty.
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