An academic known for her controversial views on Canada’s residential school system was arrested for trespassing at the University of Lethbridge over the weekend.
Lethbridge police say Frances Widdowson, a former Mount Royal University professor, was transported off the property and issued a trespassing ticket of $600.
A University of Lethbridge spokesperson said Widdowson is currently subject to a trespass notice that prohibits her from accessing the campus. The university said it was issued in early February after she held an unscheduled event on campus that was met with “significant protest.”
Widdowson was “reminded in writing” on April 20 that the trespass notice remained in effect, according to the university.
“On April 24, 2026, she contravened the notice by driving onto campus. Police officers engaged with her while she was still in her vehicle, reminded her of the notice, and warned her not to return,” reads a statement from the university.
“The following day, Widdowson returned to campus. University security advised her of the trespass notice and asked her to leave. When she refused, security contacted police, who enforced the notice.”
Widdowson told CBC News she had previously informed officials of her plans to visit the University of Lethbridge to meet with students, at which point she was informed of the February trespass notice.
“Of course I had not caused a disruption [in February],” Widdowson said.
“The university had caused a disruption by sending an email out to everyone, which resulted in a number of deranged students hunting me down and trying to stop everything I was doing.”
Widdowson said she believed the trespass notice was “illegitimate in terms of its character,” so she visited anyway.
When security came, Widdowson was sitting in a cafeteria and said she told the guard she “wasn’t going to be going anywhere.”
Police arrived, and she said she was put in handcuffs and “dragged out” to a police vehicle.
“It’s an absolute disgrace. The University of Lethbridge is the elite of the elite in terms of the university hall of shame. It is not acting like an academic institution anymore,” Widdowson said.
“I think they are more like an insane asylum.”
Widdowson is known for being a critic of what she has called “dominant residential school narratives,” and her presence often attracts controversy — and heated protest — at Canadian universities.
That has sometimes led to her arrest.
In December 2025, Widdowson was arrested and charged under British Columbia’s Trespass Act after an unsanctioned OneBC political party event on the University of Victoria campus. In January, during another OneBC event at the University of British Columbia that saw nearly 1,000 people protest, Widdowson was again arrested but was released without being charged.
Widdowson said police are often faced with situations where they must decide whether or not to de-escalate situations on campuses.
“But in this scenario, that was not the case at all. They just wanted to remove me because they did not want my ideas to be discussed on that campus,” she said.
In its statement, the University of Lethbridge said it had reasonable grounds to believe that Widdowson’s presence “would again result in significant disruption that exceeds the university’s ability to manage it.”
“She has made clear repeatedly through her own statements (in person and online) that when she attends campus, she will not leave until removed,” the statement reads.
“The concern with the ability to safely manage the situation is further challenged by her ongoing social media promotion encouraging and inciting a crowd response on campus.
“This includes videos intended to provoke University of Lethbridge community members, including one in which she mocked Indigenous smudging ceremonies (blowing marijuana smoke on her social media props).”
Widdowson said those videos were not intended to mock elders, but instead university officials.
Widdowson and the southern Alberta university have been battling for years. Widdowson has said she is focused on academic freedom, while the university has said the matter involves campus safety and reconciliation.
In 2023, a U of L faculty member invited Widdowson to deliver a lecture entitled “How ‘Woke-ism’ Threatens Academic Freedom.”
Her planned appearance faced significant resistance from faculty and staff. Two petitions opposed her lecture and referred to Widdowson as a “residential school denialist.”
The university’s 2023 decision to not allow Widdowson space for her lecture is currently the focus of a judicial review. Widdowson’s lawyers have argued the university didn’t sufficiently detail what the various harms were that would occur if it didn’t cancel the event.
Lawyers for the university have cited a range of concerns raised by students, staff and alumni, including concerns that hosting Widdowson could retraumatize Indigenous students and staff.
The judge has reserved his decision.
In a statement, Advanced Education Minister Myles McDougall said institutions are expected to foster environments where ideas can be debated and questioned, while also maintaining safe and respectful campuses through their own policies and governance processes.
“Free expression and campus safety are both important and must be balanced by post-secondary institutions. As this matter is before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment on the specifics,” McDougall wrote.
