duck
07-12-2004, 05:14 PM
"'Can't lower standard' for seeing-eye dog
N.B. university will not make exception for blind English immersion student
Graeme Hamilton
National Post
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
CREDIT: Ryan Taplin, National Post
Yvan Tessier and his guide dog, Pavot, walk through the University of New Brunswick campus yesterday. Tessier said the university is discriminating against him after he was rejected from its English immersion program for speaking French to his dog.
MONTREAL - When it comes to teaching English as a second language, the University of New Brunswick does not mess around. Slip into your mother tongue back in the dorm and you can be expelled. A T-shirt with a non-English slogan is enough to get you kicked out. And as Yvan Tessier, a blind man from Trois-Rivieres, Que., learned this week, don't even think about telling your guide dog "Assis!" instead of "Sit!"
After being accepted into the five-week summer immersion program last spring and offered a federal bursary, Mr. Tessier was denied entry on Sunday when he was unable to sign "the Pledge" required of all applicants. In Mr. Tessier's case, it was not enough that he agree to speak to the professors and other students in English; the university insisted that he sign a contract promising that "all communication with your guide dog will be exclusively in English."
The problem for the 39-year-old master's student at Ottawa's Saint Paul University is that Pavot, the black Labrador that has helped him get around for the past two years, was trained to respond to 17 concise French commands. Tell him "Stay!" and he would be lost.
For the administrators of UNB's English language program, allowing French commands to a dog would be a dangerous step on the road to Babel.
Susan Mesheau, the university's director of public relations, said that permitting Mr. Tessier to speak French to Pavot during the immersion program would be like admitting someone with sub-standard marks into the engineering faculty.
"We cannot lower a standard," she said in an interview from Fredericton. "'OK, you're a nice guy, I'll lower it for you. You might not be as good an engineer. You might build bridges that people can fall off of, but that's OK.' That's silliness. Academic standards are academic standards."
Mr. Tessier, who arrived in Fredericton on Sunday, has remained in the New Brunswick capital in the hopes the university will reverse its decision. If they do not, he is considering a human rights complaint. He said he was looking forward to the program as a chance to perfect his English, which he has been practising for the past three years.
"I think it is marginalizing me, excluding me, discriminating against me," he said by phone. "I knew other people experienced this, but to experience it myself is very frustrating. I have been to two other universities, and I never suffered discrimination."
He said his dog cannot understand English commands. He was told by the group that trained him, the Mira Foundation in Quebec, that it would take months of training to familiarize Pavot with English instructions. He had told the university that apart from the commands, he would speak only English, even when he was just talking affectionately with Pavot.
The university initially accepted Mr. Tessier into the program in March. Later, after he had made inquiries about services available to the blind, his application was transferred to Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Ms. Mesheau said this transfer was done at the request of a Quebec government representative, but Brian Monast, a Saint Paul University official who helped Mr. Tessier with the application, said it was done because UNB was reluctant to accommodate Mr. Tessier.
N.B. university will not make exception for blind English immersion student
Graeme Hamilton
National Post
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
CREDIT: Ryan Taplin, National Post
Yvan Tessier and his guide dog, Pavot, walk through the University of New Brunswick campus yesterday. Tessier said the university is discriminating against him after he was rejected from its English immersion program for speaking French to his dog.
MONTREAL - When it comes to teaching English as a second language, the University of New Brunswick does not mess around. Slip into your mother tongue back in the dorm and you can be expelled. A T-shirt with a non-English slogan is enough to get you kicked out. And as Yvan Tessier, a blind man from Trois-Rivieres, Que., learned this week, don't even think about telling your guide dog "Assis!" instead of "Sit!"
After being accepted into the five-week summer immersion program last spring and offered a federal bursary, Mr. Tessier was denied entry on Sunday when he was unable to sign "the Pledge" required of all applicants. In Mr. Tessier's case, it was not enough that he agree to speak to the professors and other students in English; the university insisted that he sign a contract promising that "all communication with your guide dog will be exclusively in English."
The problem for the 39-year-old master's student at Ottawa's Saint Paul University is that Pavot, the black Labrador that has helped him get around for the past two years, was trained to respond to 17 concise French commands. Tell him "Stay!" and he would be lost.
For the administrators of UNB's English language program, allowing French commands to a dog would be a dangerous step on the road to Babel.
Susan Mesheau, the university's director of public relations, said that permitting Mr. Tessier to speak French to Pavot during the immersion program would be like admitting someone with sub-standard marks into the engineering faculty.
"We cannot lower a standard," she said in an interview from Fredericton. "'OK, you're a nice guy, I'll lower it for you. You might not be as good an engineer. You might build bridges that people can fall off of, but that's OK.' That's silliness. Academic standards are academic standards."
Mr. Tessier, who arrived in Fredericton on Sunday, has remained in the New Brunswick capital in the hopes the university will reverse its decision. If they do not, he is considering a human rights complaint. He said he was looking forward to the program as a chance to perfect his English, which he has been practising for the past three years.
"I think it is marginalizing me, excluding me, discriminating against me," he said by phone. "I knew other people experienced this, but to experience it myself is very frustrating. I have been to two other universities, and I never suffered discrimination."
He said his dog cannot understand English commands. He was told by the group that trained him, the Mira Foundation in Quebec, that it would take months of training to familiarize Pavot with English instructions. He had told the university that apart from the commands, he would speak only English, even when he was just talking affectionately with Pavot.
The university initially accepted Mr. Tessier into the program in March. Later, after he had made inquiries about services available to the blind, his application was transferred to Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Ms. Mesheau said this transfer was done at the request of a Quebec government representative, but Brian Monast, a Saint Paul University official who helped Mr. Tessier with the application, said it was done because UNB was reluctant to accommodate Mr. Tessier.