For the purpose of these written questions, “AA” denotes Ahmad Abdallah and “TV” denotes the Advocate for the Thames Valley District School Board.
1)
TV: Can you please tell us how you were able to write many English language papers during your studies in Austria? Did you write these papers yourself?
AA: Of course I write these papers myself. I already have level 5 in English before I came to Canada and take the English as Second Language (ESL) studies. My English was already good enough to write papers.
2)
TV: If your English was already at a proficient level to write many English papers, why did you need to enroll in an ESL class?
AA: I needed to make my English better, to continue to improve so that I could get better career advancement first as a teacher and then as an Engineer.
3)
TV: You are Egyptian and I understand you are also a Moslem. Tell me, in your culture, how are women treated? Would you say that women are equal to men?
AA: This is exactly the type of question that you always ask of immigrants! You want us to be different than you so that you can say that you are better than us! You do this to make me look like less of a man! Women are treated well in my country. They prepare meals, have babies and take care of the house. We respect what they are able to do for us.
4)
TV: And when you say that you “respect what they are able to do for us” what are you referring to? Their ability to have careers? To be teachers? Test monitors? Test administrators? In what capacity are you describing this respect?
AA: Women work hard and every culture in this world respects that. But I must remind you that Eve was made from a part of Adam. She came from his rib. She is a subset of him. Nowhere in the Quran does it say that we need to have women as educators or test monitors. I am a Gentleman and I am polite and so of course I treat women with regard.
5)
TV: “Regard” is another interesting choice of words. Please explain what kind of “regard” you had for your ESL instructors when you continued to tell them, email them and annoy them to give you marks that were better than a 5.
AA: I had the highest regard for them. I was polite and stated my case clearly. I needed them to understand that my work was better than how they had graded it. I think that busy people who have so much to do might lose track of important facts and so need to be reminded often so that they do what they need to do.
6)
TV: You told the Test monitor that the computer that you were using kept crashing and that this required you to hand write your answers as a form of back up on a piece of paper. What made you think this was OK instead of simply asking to move to a different computer if the one you were working on was faulty?
AA: I didn’t know that I was doing anything wrong. I thought that by working through the crashing computer that I was helping the test monitor. She seemed overwhelmed with her duties, and had so many students to attend to. I decided to be a Gentleman and help her by keeping my mouth shut about the computer and continuing my work. I was helping her.
7)
AA: No not exactly, but I knew she would appreciate my help because she was very busy and I was doing my best to make things easier for her.
8)
TV: The test monitor stated that you had a legal sized sheet of paper folded into squares and that it was numbered in each side with the answers for the multiple choice questions. The monitor stated that you told her that you were fasting Ramadan and therefore did your work at home to make it easier for yourself. What really happened here?
AA: I was fasting for Ramadan and I was exhausted, thirsty and hungry. The crashing computer added to my woes. I decided to keep writing the answers on the paper. She told me to stop using the paper for my answers, but I continued because it was the easiest thing to do. You can never understand how tiring it is to fast from sunrise until sunset. It makes for a very long day. I try very hard to make things as easy as possible just to get to sunset so I can eat and drink then.
9)
TV: Tell me about your outburst regarding the cheating. Did you think it made things “easy” for the Test Monitor, your fellow classmates or you when you disrupted the class with loud accusations?
AA: This was not easy at all. First, she wanted me to give her my back-up sheet. Then she accused me of cheating. Then she was giving me a hard time about being an immigrant. I took great offense to this and was unable to put my feelings into words. And that’s when she made the situation much worse by telling me that I, like all immigrants cry for marks! Who is she to judge me this way?
10)
TV: Is it possible that you misread this situation and over-reacted? Didn’t you also threaten to call the police? And didn’t you also send an email to your instructor urging her for “a good situation”? Do you believe that threats are an effective way of dealing with conflict?
AA: It is I who felt threatened! Here were 2 women threatening me and accusing me of cheating and telling me that I am a crying immigrant! I felt that my safety was threatened. This is why I thought to call the Police. I needed protection from their discrimination!
11)
TV: They did not threaten you. They pointed out what you were doing and this data was backed up with evidence by their statements. How did you decide that your threats and your accusations were in any way a sign of discrimination?
AA: They belittled me. And next they turned my words against me and it cost me a job. I was discriminated against because they are not capable of understanding me. I am an accomplished Engineer and I have been very successful. These women are all wrong.
12)
TV: If you had to do this all over again, would you do anything differently?
AA: If I had to do this all over again, I’m not sure that I would select this school, full of women that want to offend me and discredit me because I was not born in Canada.
References:
. N.p.. Web. 17 Mar 2014. <http://caselaw.canada.globe24h.com/0/0/ontario/human-rights-tribunal-of-ontario/2008/11/10/abdallah-v-thames-valley-district-school-board-2008-hrto-230.shtml>.
