(Ottawa) Lecturer Verushka Lieutenant-Duval, suspended after saying the “word that begins with an N” in class, was “guilty” in the eyes of the University of Ottawa even before being heard.
Updated yesterday at 6:51 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 the 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 her of her duties four days earlier because she had uttered the “word that begins with an N” as part of his Art and Gender course.
“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 management, Verushka Lieutenant-Duval took two training courses (one on respect, which she had already taken, 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 on the use of sensitive words in class with the administration, which was not receptive to it.
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 Harvard professor”, 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.
She would have asked if there was “a list of forbidden words at the University of Ottawa”, to which Ms.me Bennett would have answered him that “all words can be said if they are put in context”, always according to the version of the lecturer.
Mme Lieutenant-Duval eventually resumed teaching both of his courses ten days after they had initially been taken away from him.
“A tissue 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 program Facts first by Alain Gravel. Statements that Mme Lieutenant-Duval called it “fiction” and a “tissue of lies”.
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.