(Ottawa) Lecturer Verushka Lt-Duval suspended for saying an “N” word in class before she even heard it was “culpable” in the eyes of the University of Ottawa.
Updated yesterday at 6:51 pm.
It is at least Mr.me Dean of the Faculty of Arts Kevin Key during his first meeting with Lt-Duval, four days after he was suspended.
The lecturer continued his testimony Friday during the third arbitration hearing against his former employer in Ottawa.
At the center of the controversy: Mme Lt-Duvall criticizes the University of Ottawa for temporarily suspending him without first consulting him.
On October 6, 2020, Mr.me Lieutenant-Duval first met Mr. met Key, who had been relieved of his duties four days earlier because he spelled the “word that starts with N” as part of an art and gender lesson.
“I had prepared a speech where I apologized and explained what happened,” the lecturer told referee Michael Flaherty.
But M. said that his interlocutor was “completely closed” to his version of the factsme Lieutenant Duvall.
“I remember looking at Dean and it was like somebody’s listening to me, but it’s coming out the other ear,” he testified. “I am guilty, I saw it, felt it. »
Diving in the dark
At the administration’s request, Verushka took two training courses (one on respect, the other on racism) aimed at reintegrating Lt.-Duval into the classroom.
Despite this, the lecturer testified that he was in the dark for several days. “It was difficult for me to get the timing right. We were talking about me going back to class, but I don’t know when,” he said.
She tried to open a dialogue with the administration about the use of sensitive language in class, which was not accepted.
The day before the meeting with Diversity and Inclusion Advisor Stephanie Bennett, Verushka said Lt.-Duval sent her two videos. The first is from “a black Harvard professor” and the second is from Danny LaFerriere, who “insists that we must quote all words, even a white one”.
“When I got to the meeting, I asked her if she had seen the videos. She replies no. I understand that I am in front of someone who is completely closed, again, who does not engage in serious conversation,” M dropped.me Lieutenant Duvall.
She would have asked if there was a “list of banned words at the University of Ottawa,” to which Ms.me According to the Always Lecturer’s version, Bennett would have replied to him, “All words can be said in context.”
Mme Lieutenant-Duvall, ten days after it was first taken from him, resumed teaching both of his courses.
“Web of Lies”
In the following months, the rector of the University of Ottawa, Jacques Frémont, made several public statements on the controversy, including an appearance on the show. First the facts By Alain Gravel. Reports Mme Lieutenant-Duval called it a “fiction” and a “tissue of lies”.
The lecturer filed two complaints against the University of Ottawa, which ultimately defended its handling of the crisis.
The next hearing will be held on the 1stR December.
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