Professor Derails Hoax Interview After She Turns Camera on Crew

Frances Widdowson, a former associate professor in the department of economics, justice, and policy studies at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, in an undated photo. Courtesy of Frances Widdowson

Author and former university professor Frances Widdowson reacted to a recent hoax interview where children’s shoes were dumped on a table in front of her by taking out her smartphone and interviewing those who she said had been trying to humiliate her.

Widdowson, who has faced arrest at universities for attempting to hold conversations on claims of unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., said an “elaborate deception” led to her being in a Vancouver studio for a hoax interview on May 4.

She said two men entered during taping and emptied a box of children’s shoes in front of her in what she viewed as an apparent attempt to portray her as “racist.” She added that despite the initial surprise, she decided to turn the tables on her interlocutors and put them on the spot by interviewing them.

“I took out my smartphone and started live streaming it right then and interrogating this guy,” Widdowson said of her footage, where she questions a member of the American prank activist group “The Yes Men” involved in the hoax named Igor Vamos.

“He said it was a social experiment and that I had been given my opportunity to state my piece,” she added of Vamos’s response.

After the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation said in 2021 that ground-penetrating radar at the site of the former residential school in Kamloops had identified the remains of 215 children, and following similar announcements across the country, supporters placed shoes and other symbolic items at former residential school sites as a tribute to the children who attended them.

Widdowson has been outspoken about the claim, saying no excavation has taken place at the school to prove the existence of the graves, and has asked to hold conversations with those who hold the opposite view.

Set Up

Widdowson, who is based in Calgary, said she was first contacted by an individual named Pam Gibson claiming to represent a documentary production company called Forge Media this past March and was invited to an in-person interview in Vancouver.

The former Mount Royal University professor said she searched online and found a page appearing to show a number of documentaries done by Forge Media that looked legitimate. She said she agreed to the interview, with Forge agreeing to pay for her flight and hotel room, and provide an honorarium.

“I was very trusting. I wasn’t expecting some kind of setup,” she said, adding that she later learned the person was an actress.

During the performance, Widdowson said “Gibson” was “dolled up” in a way that appeared comical. As well, there was a John A. MacDonald impersonator also participating at one point. In recent years, statues of Canada’s first prime minister have been removed in different cities across Canada, with proponents of the removals citing his role in establishing residential schools.

Widdowson said she continued the interview for some time before two men entered the studio and dumped the shoes in front of her.

Widdowson said she at first asked if they were trying to draw a parallel with the Holocaust in putting the shoes on the table, before asking for her purse and beginning to film. Vamos can be seen gesturing to the shoes when Widdowson asks what the point of the event had been and asking for his identity.

The Epoch Times contacted Vamos for comment.

‘Social Experiment’

In Widdowson’s footage, numerous crew members can be seen in studio as Vamos identifies himself as “Mike Smith.” He ultimately engages with Widdowson, saying that it’s a “social experiment” and denies that she is a target, saying instead that she is “participating.”

Vamos goes on to say he works for “aboriginal people” and defers when asked about the total costs, saying Widdowson should know the answer.

“So they’re pretending that it’s a woke exposé and it’s not,” Widdowson says of the purported program that had been entitled “Wake Up Canada.”

“This seems to be trying to expose me. I’m quite amazed,” she says in the video to Vamos, who goes on to say he doesn’t know if the footage will be released in its entirety.

She says after speaking to Vamos she took a car provided by the production company to the airport and then flew home.

Widdowson, 60, added that she never feared for her safety during what happened but does feel that the hoax interview is part of a broader effort to publicly discredit and intimidate people like her.

“I’m used to these crowds and people trying to attack me and I’m not easily frightened,” Widdowson said. “It was just more kind of the annoyance of having people lie to you and manipulate you and try to make a fool out of you.”

Talks in Campus

Widdowson was dismissed from her position as a former professor in economics, justice, and policy studies at Calgary’s Mount Royal University in 2021 following controversy over comments she made about indigenous reconciliation and social issues. She is legally challenging her dismissal from the university.

She has faced a number of protests, tickets, and arrests on university and college campuses across the country for sharing her views, most recently receiving a trespassing ticket after returning to the University of Lethbridge in April following an earlier speaking controversy.

The university said Widdowson was arrested for trespassing.

The April incident resulted in a $600 fine, which Widdowson said she has no intention of paying because she says protesters were “fomented” against her and then authorities incorrectly blamed her for the resulting disturbance.

“I was just talking to a member of the public at a table doing nothing,” she said, adding her case against the ticket is being represented by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.