UPDATED: CBC confirms involvement in controversial prank series targeting Frances Widdowson, Lindsay Shepherd

CALGARY — Questions are being asked about taxpayer-funded activism and media ethics after former Mount Royal University professor Dr. Frances Widdowson and author Lindsay Shepherd said they were specifically targeted in an elaborate prank operation.Widdowson told the Western Standard she was contacted by a media company named Forge Media and then flown to Vancouver from Calgary in early May under the impression she was participating in a legitimate documentary about Canadian history and free speech, only to discover it was a staged prank linked to activist group The Yes Men and indigenous activists and comedians..'WAKE UP CANADA': Frances Widdowson says fake interview operation linked to taxpayer-funded production, possible CBC ties.Shepherd took to social media platform X with a post that has since gone viral, claiming she too was subjected to a similar sting operation involving fake companies and filmed interviews around her book on former prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald entitled A Day with Sir John A in February of this year.She further said that, upon investigation, it appears the CBC and APTN were involved in the operation.In her post, she attached a screenshot of what appears to be an email exchange between herself and the CBC’s Director of Public Relations, Katherine Wolfgang, in which the CBC employee confirms “that this project is in early production for CBC Entertainment and APTN.”.In a statement to the Western Standard, CBC confirmed the existence of the production, saying the project — titled Northland Tales — is an “indigenous-led unscripted, half-hour comedy series in early production for CBC Entertainment and APTN.”“CBC News and APTN News have no involvement in this production or prior knowledge of it,” the statement read.According to CBC, the project was first pitched at the Indigenous Screen Summit during the Banff World Media Festival in 2024, with CBC Entertainment later joining APTN as a partner.The broadcaster defended the show's format, saying that “social experiments and satirical prank shows are a long-established television format used by broadcasters and streamers around the world, including many public broadcasters.”“In this case, the indigenous creators are using the format for Northland Tales. A form of comedy is being deployed to increase better understanding of historical injustices against indigenous peoples and support truth and reconciliation in Canada,” CBC said.“It is important for us in the execution that this entertainment series does not negatively impact our news brand. As the show is still in production, it’s premature for us to comment on the creative.”Widdowson and Shepherd's stories are now fuelling a firestorm of controversy online, as many critics in the cultural and political realms are debating whether the activist campaign has crossed ethical lines, with critics arguing the incident reflects a growing trend of activist-driven attacks disguised as political satire or documentary filmmaking.Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Melissa Lantsman (Thornhill), said that Marc Miller, Canada’s Minister of Identity and Culture, has “some questions to answer.".“CBC is using your tax dollars to smear the very country it was built to serve, running deceptive sting operations,” Lantsman said.“Fake documentaries. Hidden agendas. Entrapping ordinary Canadians and spending your tax dollars lavishly doing it. History-erasing ideologies that spare no expense.”Dallas Brodie (Vancouver-Quilchena), the leader of OneBC, confirmed that she had been approached by the same media company as Widdowson, adding the company stated they were “subcontracted by the CBC.”.“We smelled a rat right away,” Brodie said.“So we asked some follow-up questions about what other documentaries they had done, and when they failed to answer sufficiently, we refused the interview.”Brodie also stated that she had worked at CBC Toronto in the late 1990s on The Fifth Estate and Marketplace and knew from experience that the way Forge Media had tried to arrange interview subjects was “not the normal procedure.”Tristin Hopper, a columnist with the National Post, said he felt Canada was “rife for a Borat-style critique of our many, many ridiculous hypocritical norms. But instead, here's some activists taking taxpayer money in order to target women who have lost their jobs for opposing official reconciliation narratives.”.“This is outrageous,” Conservative MP Andrew Lawton (Elgin—St. Thomas—London South) said.“How do fraudulent, fake documentaries fit in with Marc Miller's claim of CBC being necessary for ‘social cohesion’?”The Western Standard has also reached out to APTN for comment.

UPDATED: CBC confirms involvement in controversial prank series targeting Frances Widdowson, Lindsay Shepherd

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