An Alberta court has rejected a request from Calgary’s Mount Royal University to appeal a recent ruling regarding the dismissal and possible reinstatement of a former tenured professor.
Frances Widdowson, a faculty member known for her views on Canada’s residential school system, was fired by Mount Royal University five years ago.
Widdowson’s dismissal was brought before the Alberta Labour Relations Board by the university’s faculty association, Justice Jo’Anne Strekaf noted in her ruling earlier this month. The board is responsible for overseeing and enforcing collective bargaining regulations in Alberta.
Arbitrator David Phillip Jones found that Widdowson’s firing was disproportionate to her conduct, which centered on a social media “Twitter war” with colleagues. However, Jones declined to order her reinstatement due to ongoing workplace hostility and proposed a monetary payout instead, according to the court documents….