'No idea my life would be threatened,' says Calgary professor after thousands of hate messages

There is no name on the frosted window of her office, no signage pointing to the office's location on the Mount Royal University campus. Panic buttons have been installed, and security guards do daily area checks. 

This is work life for linda manyguns since her office opened at the end of August. 

manyguns is the associate vice-president of indigenization and decolonization at the university in southwest Calgary. manyguns is a Blackfoot woman, born on the Tsuut'ina Nation and registered at Siksika Nation.

In July, manyguns publicly announced she would be using only lower case letters for her name, in addition to not using capital letters except to acknowledge the Indigenous struggle for recognition.

"I had anticipated having to argue my position. I was ready to do that. I had no idea that my life would be threatened," manyguns said. 

"To show solidarity with others who are facing the same issues as Aboriginal people, I wanted to purposely and publicly join that initiative," manyguns said.

It is something other academics and writers have done over the years, including author and activist bell hooks and poet e.e. cummings.  

When manyguns did it, interview requests came in from various media outlets, both local and international, she said. 

Then the responses came. 

There were emails, she said, filled with vile and horrid words, calling her every derogatory name in the book. There were over 3,000 messages. 

"I had no idea of the vulgar, vulgar nature of these. The people that feel that they have the right to carry on this way, they're cowards." 

Michael Quinn, vice-provost and associate vice-president, academic, at MRU, said he cried when he saw the messages. 

"The level of personal attack is beyond anything reasonable. We expect and want to have dialogue. We don't expect everyone to agree on ideas, but they need to happen in a civil dialogue. They need to happen with respect," Quinn said.

manyguns is now working on a poster campaign dealing directly with colonization.