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<\/p>\nAgainst all odds, 18-year-old Henry Gendreau reached his goal of studying animation at a Quebec college.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Diagnosed with autism, Henry was non-verbal until around the age of five, but that never stopped him from pursuing his dreams.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was excited when I was going for a second semester,\u201d said the Gatineau, Que., teen. <\/p>\n
As part of a military family that moved often, for once he also revelled at the idea of making long-term friendships.<\/p>\n
But those dreams were crushed after Quebec\u2019s Education Ministry denied his request for a French-language exemption from his high school, resulting in his removal from his post-secondary studies after one semester.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was unfortunate when I got removed,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Henry was accepted to his CEGEP program on the condition that he obtain this exemption to his mandatory French-language requirements from his high school, from which he never graduated due to failing his French classes.<\/p>\n
Quebec\u2019s Charter of the French language grants children with serious learning issues a waiver allowing them to be educated in English.\u00a0But the province\u2019s Education Ministry denied that request.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hits me in the sense that not only I’ve lost the skills I’ve wanted to obtain, it also hits me personally because I’ve lost a lot of friends,\u201d Henry said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After a big breath, he adds, \u201cIt leads to a loneliness and emptiness I hoped I would never feel again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s beyond the pale,’ father says<\/p>\n
After Henry\u2019s diagnosis, his father, Daniel Gendreau, says doctors recommended his bilingual family stick to speaking to him exclusively in English. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrench was a challenge. That was either unsurmountable, or for him to have a modicum of success, it would be at the expense of everything else,\u201d said Gendreau.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gendreau says he was told Henry could only apply for the necessary exemption at the end of high school \u2013 a seven-month-long process he calls \u201cobscure and frustrating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry does not communicate with parents, only with the school, which Gendreau says didn\u2019t provide enough details.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WATCH | The student speaks out after losing CEGEP spot:<\/p>\n
Quebec autistic student loses college spot over French requirement<\/p>\n
Henry Gendreau dreamed of studying animation in junior college, known in Quebec as CEGEP, but after the government rejected his exemption from French classes, stating he had missed many of them, he was forced to leave the program.<\/p>\n
He says it took him filing several access to information requests to the government in order to learn the reason the exemption was denied: the ministry in large part blamed Henry\u2019s inability to learn French on the fact that he missed many days of class.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNot because he’s learning challenged,\u201d Gendreau said with frustration.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
He says those absences were because Henry was being tutored to help pass the rest of his subjects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To complicate things, the Gendreaus were a military family and moved locations six times, including to the United States where Henry didn\u2019t have access to French classes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sacrifice Gendreau says he was happy and proud to make, but he expected a bit of understanding in return.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to the future of a child now being limited due in a certain part to the fact that he’s moved six times in 14 years, coupled with a learning disability that’s well-documented, that’s unequivocal, it’s beyond the pale,\u201d Gendreau said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also learned there is no appeal process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can there be no appeal process? When we didn’t even understand the decision and we were never clearly explained why the decision was made. I think it’s just absolutely unacceptable,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Burden of proof too high, says researcher<\/p>\n
Marie-Eve Lefebvre is a professor at the Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Rimouski and specializes in higher education. Her research focuses on autistic students who want to pursue their post-secondary studies.<\/p>\n
She says the burden to prove you can\u2019t learn French is too high and autistic people she works with are discouraged from even applying for an exemption.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne [reason] is they don’t know it exists. Second is that they know, but they don’t think they can do it. And the other thing is that they understand they can do it, but they’re tired,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Marie-Eve Lefebvre specializes in autism at Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Rimouski. (Gloria Henr\u00edquez\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Applying implies advocating for yourself, which Lefebvre says can be difficult for students with disabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to mobilize a team: basically a doctor, sometimes a psychologist, psychiatrist, your teacher, your parents. So it’s a privilege, let’s say, to just have all these people on your side to be able to advocate for your needs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lefebvre says the process could end up sending a difficult message to students facing challenges: that their needs are not recognized.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s intentional, but the way the system works, and the way it\u2019s difficult to access those exemptions kind of implies that, unfortunately,\u201d Lefebvre said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rejections to exemption requests \u2018frequent\u2019<\/p>\n
Christopher Craig, vice-president of the Quebec English School Boards Association, says rejections to exemption requests are frequent and impactful for students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey might not be allowed to achieve their full potential and might possibly leave school at high school because of these rejections,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He says former education minister Bernard Drainville told English school boards making the process easier would be a priority.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Craig says that didn\u2019t happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Christopher Craig is the vice-president of the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA), which represents nine English public school boards and one special status board, serving approximately 100,000 students. (Sidhartha Banerjee\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Current Education Minister Sonia LeBel declined CBC\u2019s request for an interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite several requests, the Education Ministry did not provide statistics on the number of requests for exemptions filed and the rate of rejection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I can say is for the governments to do better, to not make the same mistakes they did with me,\u201d Henry said, struggling to hold back his tears.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019s now enrolled in a private online program in Ontario so he can obtain his high school diploma.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His father says his son has worked hard to go through school and deserves to graduate.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Against all odds, 18-year-old Henry Gendreau reached his goal of studying animation at a Quebec college.\u00a0 Diagnosed with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-866641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}