This article was originally posted February 17, 2026 on the Sorry No More Substack . It has been republished with the author’s permission.
An Open Letter to Premier Danielle Smith on Lack of Open, Civil Debate on University Campus
I am pleased to see that your government is taking a keen interest in returning university hiring to being merit-based, rather than bound by artificial Diversity, Equality, Inclusion (DEI) factors. These are a subset of Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) evaluations imposed upon the pension funds and institutional investors who are signatory to the UNPRI – United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment – a transnational, unelected, unaccountable group of some 5,000 signatories, who sit on ~$1.4 trillion in Assets Under Management (AUM).
The UNPRI activist investors have been skewing markets for years – especially investments and management of fossil fuel companies. This is well documented by the Republican House Judiciary Committee’s interim report on the so-called “climate cartel” – “Climate Control: Exposing The Decarbonization Collusion In Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Investing.”
It appears that “compelled speech” and “compelled groupthink” on many issues of social importance have trickled down from this influence, particularly to schools and universities, likely via the union pension funds which are directly or indirectly signatory to the UNPRI Six Principles.
Thus, I hope, as part of your effort to restore merit-based employment, especially at universities, that you will also address the need for universities to amplify the principles of and methods for engaging in open, civil debate.
A recent, deeply disturbing event, illustrates this need.
At the University of Lethbridge on Feb. 05, 2026, Dr. Frances Widdowson and a handful of colleagues tried to establish a platform for a voluntary discussion with students whose interest may have been piqued by her question: “Residential school genocide?” The method she uses was developed by noted American philosopher, Peter Boghossian, who encourages people: “Instead of trying to avoid controversy, you can productively embrace it.”
AI summarizes: “Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.”
Dr. Widdowson’s method follows the Boghossian pattern above, but she uses small mats laid out on the ground in a semi-circle, with the words printed on them, so that people can stand on or beside the mat and then move according to their stated position on a topic. The idea is to pose a question or thesis, and then through respectful dialogue and an exchange of facts, the participant(s) may move from the starting ‘neutral’ position to the position that best represents their view. The purpose is to understand each other’s reasoning and evidence, not to necessarily change anyone’s mind.
Shortly after Dr. Widdowson and colleagues arrived at a public space at the University of Lethbridge, a curious student stopped by and began engaging with her in a calm manner, consistent with Boghossian’s exercise.
However, just prior to Dr. Widdowson’s arrival, the University of Lethbridge administration had sent out a mass email to students, notifying them of Widdowson’s social media post. Some people feel that this was an unnecessary provocation on the part of the university. Within minutes, a hoard of outraged students descended on Dr. Widdowson and colleagues in a mob-rule, near riot.
Sadly, no one from the University of Lethbridge administration arrived to direct the students to stand down; the police arrived but were not able to keep Dr. Widdowson and colleagues from being verbally and physically harassed and intimidated. Ultimately, Dr. Widdowson was carried away by police.
Some people blame Widdowson for this “provocation,” as she has visited several Canadian universities in the past few months and the outcome has been similar. Rather than open, civil debate, she’s been met with brawling, noisy crowds of students, protestors and sometimes university officials or instructors who were part of the crowd of agitators themselves.
However, I was at the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom’s awards ceremony last fall and heard Dr. Widdowson speak of her new mission – to go to Canadian university campuses and see if academic freedom is still alive there.
In other words, she is risking her life and limb to try and show the Canadian public how far off the rails universities have gone in terms of supporting and even pushing irrational thought and unacceptable behaviour.
As Widdowson said in her speech, accepting the JCCF George Jonas Freedom Award, universities are not just place that our children go for education – they are the crucible of our future society. The students will be our future doctors, engineers, nurses, researchers, astronauts, public policy makers, lawyers, and so on.
Rather than seeing Widdowson only as a provocateur, perhaps people should have a look at this interview which illustrates her journey and challenges.
Do we not want to ensure that our university students’ world views are shaped by the highest form of scientific and evidentiary methods? That the students are fully grounded in reality? Do we not want to ensure that these young people are given the skills with which to professionally and effectively engage with and manage encounters with others so that there can be a productive and constructive outcome?
Life is full of contentious issues and hard decisions have to be made every day by professionals in society – whether these are life-or-death decisions by a doctor, or pot-hole vs new library decisions by a city council – there are implications for the whole of society, often from one event or decision.
One such event, for Canada, was the claim of the Kamloops Indian Band, on May 27, 2021, that they had found the human remains of 215 children’s bodies buried in a mass grave(s) in the old apple orchard near the Kamloops (aka Tk’emlups) Indian Residential School. This ghastly news shot around the world and resulted in Canada lowering the flag for six months, cancelling Canada Day and Canada turned from an honored peacemaker worldwide, to a genocidal pariah overnight.
With no evidence.
It was also the visceral factor that pushed the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) through the Senate, where it had been defeated in an earlier effort. The claim of “cultural genocide”, which had been promoted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), instantly became a physical genocide in the minds of the public.
Furthermore, in terms of international significance, the day after UNDRIP received Royal Assent (June 21, 2021), on June 22, 2021, China and several despot nations accused Canada of genocide on the world stage, citing the Kamloops mass grave as ‘evidence.’ How does that fit with China being Canada’s new ‘strategic’ partner?
As you may recall, six premiers (including then Premier Kenney) and several First Nations were opposed to UNDRIP as written because of certain vagaries of the text (i.e., what constitutes “consent”, would this be retroactive, etc., etc.), and there were concerns that UNDRIP might end up overriding the Canadian Constitution. As we see now in British Columbia, with the Cowichan Ruling, those concerns were valid.
So UNDRIP passed, but largely due to the fraught, emotional response from Canadians to the Kamloops Band’s unproven claim of finding the human remains of 215 children’s bodies, for which no evidence has ever been presented. In fact, there is no list of children’s names alleged to be missing, and no family members have stepped forward with evidence to show that any child in their family has gone missing. Importantly, even if a mass grave is ever revealed, that does not imply nefarious deeds as many known mass graves exist across Canada, related to typhus, cholera, Spanish Flu or other disaster events.
The fall-out from this single claim of the Kamloops Band and the adoption of UNDRIP is Balkanizing Canada.
Subsequent to the revelation that the Cowichan case had been wending its way through the courts, unannounced to Richmond property owners, for about a decade, it was revealed that the Kamloops Band had also filed a claim for aboriginal title over the entire city of Kamloops back in 2015. If people had known of this claim on May 26, 2021, would they have taken seriously the unproven claim of mass graves and children’s bodies in the Kamloops Indian Residential School’s old apple orchard? No one did any prior land use research; in all likelihood, the Kamloops Ground Penetrating Radar results are signalling the 2,000 feet of septic trenches and tiles, dug back in the 1920s.[1]
In my view, this was a contrived claim, as evidenced by a subsequent open letter to then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, published in the Globe and Mail by the 13 “grassroots families” of the Kamloops Band.[2]
So, from this single claim of the Kamloops Band on May 27, 2021, there has been tremendous fallout across Canada and around the world, yet there is no evidence to support the claim. Now, anyone who asks such questions is being threatened with risk of a jail sentence by pending legislation!
I have written this Open Letter to the Honorable Sean Fraser,[3] regarding a call for inquiry into:
Dr. Widdowson is testing our universities, the administration and the students, to see if people know what:
a) Academic freedom means – is it alive and well or dead?
b) What is the evidence for “What Remains?” in the Kamloops claim?
Asking such questions or discussing them openly on a university campus should not be controversial matters in a modern society. They should be the norm.
With your focus on merit-based hiring at universities, I ask you to also consider requiring universities to operate an academically free debating society in order to receive provincial funding. It is my view that universities should be required to have a forum like the Oxford Union or Spectrum Street Epistemology sessions so that debates can be done without risk of disorderly or dangerous behaviour.
I am also of the view that universities must not encourage or permit the kind of wild reactionary protests which we witnessed at the University of Lethbridge in reaction to Dr. Widdowson’s recent visit. Students should know that the price for participation in such public illegal protest (having quickly become a mass mob intimidation-fest) is suspension or being expelled with no recourse or return of funds, and potentially being charged with mischief, intimidation, uttering threats or what have you, according to the instance in question. University administrators must not celebrate or encourage uncivil behavior.
Vice-Provost Leroy Little Bear, University of Lethbridge, celebrates student’s unruly, intimidation of Dr. Frances Widdowson. Source: Call for the University of Lethbridge Board of Governors to Require an Open, Civil Debate on the Issue of the Kamloops First Nation’s Claim of 215 Children’s Bodies Found in a Mass Grave
We understand that Blacklocks Reporter will soon receive the documents related to a FOIA request for the receipts and use of Kamloops Indians Band’s $12.1 million in tax funding, supposedly for excavations. All Canadians are entitled to know the truth. The Kamloops Band is made up of only about 2,000 people, half of whom do not even live on reserve. Where have these millions of dollars gone?
Kevin Klein of the Winnipeg Sun recently posted an article about a letter he’d received from an Indian band member from another part of the country, denouncing the corruption and lack of accountability on reserve.[4] I think this paragraph applies to the topic above – which few people are willing to touch:
Politicians tell themselves that silence equals respect. That asking hard questions is somehow anti-reconciliation. That demanding financial transparency would be seen as racist or paternalistic. The result is moral paralysis. And it is Indigenous people who pay the price.
Staying silent does not protect Indigenous communities. It protects bad actors. -From Kevin Klein, Winnipeg Sun (bold emphasis added)
Dr. Widdowson wrote a book (with Albert Howard) published in 2008 titled, “Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry.” She continues her work on foot, at universities.
For the most part, the Canadian public is blissfully unaware that while Indigenous people number some 1.8 million, Canadian taxpayers are shelling out well over $60 billion in various forms of reconciliation money. Indigenous funding exceeds Canada’s defence budget. New land claims based on the Cowichan ruling will exceed the national GDP.
As mentioned above, Canada will be Balkanized and bankrupted. That’s not reconciliation, and the Kamloops claim is not based on evidence. Much of the groupthink on this matter is supported and promoted at the university level. Self-censorship and fear of recrimination prevents proper disclosure; the taxpaying public remain ignorant of the financial extortion stemming from UNDRIP legislation, ignorant of the extraordinary financial payouts to some 5% of the population, and afraid to ask any questions about this for fear of being called a “racist”. Meanwhile, thousands of ordinary Indigenous people live in poverty and despair on reserve, and in British Columbia, perhaps spilling into the rest of Canada, property rights of the taxpaying public have been put into question.
If federal legislation like Bill C-9 or Leah Gazan’s reintroduced ‘denialism’ bill pass, people could go to jail for asking questions about Canada’s no-name, phantom genocide.
All because of one poor public policy decision, accepting the Kamloops Band’s grisly claim at face value, not driven by evidence, police investigation or due process of law.
Clearly, any Canadian should be able to ask questions about these matters without intimidation or fear. Our future depends on knowing the truth on this and all matters.
Thank you for your consideration of these issues.
Sincerely,
Michelle Stirling
Independent Researcher
Producer/Writer of “The Bitter Roots of ‘Sugarcane’”
[1] https://indianresidentialschoolrecords.com/kamloops/
[2] https://open.substack.com/pub/michellestirlingg/p/the-great-canadian-land-grab-psy?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
[3] https://open.substack.com/pub/michellestirlingg/p/open-letter-to-the-honorable-sean?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
[4] https://www.pressreader.com/canada/winnipeg-sun/20260131/281586657022826
