(Ottawa) Lecturer Verushka Lieutenant-Duval, suspended after saying the “word that begins with N” in class, was “guilty” in the eyes of the University of Ottawa even before being heard.
Posted at 6:32 p.m.
This is at least what Mr.me Lieutenant-Duval during his first meeting with the dean of the Faculty of Arts, Kevin Kee, four days after his suspension.
The lecturer continued her testimony on Friday during a third arbitration session against her ex-employer in Ottawa.
At the heart of the dispute: Mme Lieutenant-Duval criticizes the University of Ottawa for having temporarily suspended her, without first consulting her.
On October 6, 2020, Mr.me Lieutenant-Duval was meeting for the first time Mr. Kee, who had relieved him of his duties four days earlier, because she had pronounced the “word that begins with N” as part of his course Art and gender.
“I had prepared a speech where I apologized and explained what had happened,” said the lecturer to referee Michelle Flaherty.
But his interlocutor was “completely closed” to his version of the facts, according to Mme Lieutenant Duval.
“I remember looking at the dean and being like someone who hears what I say, but it comes out the other ear,” she testified. “I was guilty and I saw it, I felt it. »
Diving into the dark
At the request of the administration, Verushka Lieutenant-Duval took two training courses (one on respect and the other on racism) with a view to her reintegration into the classroom.
Despite this, the lecturer testified that she was in the dark for several days. “I found it difficult to have the right time. We were talking about my return to class, but I did not know when, ”she said.
She also tried to open a dialogue with the administration on the use of sensitive words in class, without success.
The day before a meeting with the adviser to diversity and inclusion Steffany Bennett, Verushka Lieutenant-Duval told to have sent him two videos. The first was “from a black professor from Harvard” and the second from Dany Laferrière, “who affirm that we must be able to mention all the words, even a white person”.
“When I arrived at the meeting, I ask her if she has viewed the videos. She replies no. I understand that I am in front of someone who is completely closed again and who is not there to have a serious conversation, ”dropped Mme Lieutenant Duval.
The lecturer eventually resumed teaching her two classes ten days after she was initially removed.
“A tissue of lies”
In the following months, the rector of the University of Ottawa, Jacques Frémont, signed a series of public statements on the controversy falling under “fiction” and a “web of lies”, lamented Mr.me Lieutenant Duval.
The lecturer filed two grievances against the University of Ottawa, which defended its management of the crisis until the end.
The next hearing will be held on 1er december.