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. |