French lessons for dyslexic employee likely to cost DND over $70,000

The Department of National Defence is planning to give a dyslexic employee in Ottawa 70 weeks of one-on-one French-language training at a cost likely to exceed $70,000.

DND revealed the plan in a tender this week that invited bids from language instructors for “adapted individual French-language training” for an employee with a learning disability at its national headquarters on Colonel By Drive.

Under Treasury Board guidelines and the Canadian Human Rights Act, DND has a duty to accommodate employees with disabilities and protect them from discrimination, DND spokesman Daniel le Bouthillier said in an email.

The duty to accommodate has also been recognized by the courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada.

The employee isn’t identified in the tender document, but the request came from Edison Stewart, the department’s assistant deputy minister for public affairs.

“The services are not for him,” le Bouthillier told the Ottawa Citizen. “It’s for an employee in the organization.”

What a private company spends its money on is their own business (and possibly that of its shareholders). Massive non-story TBH.

The whole point is that it isn't a private company. It's a Canadian government department wasting Canadian taxpayers money.

Ah, I missed that. Still, a Canadian civil servant learning French isn't exactly groundbreaking, half the country speaks the language. So it's hardly a waste of money.

Well, maybe so. But I'm sure there were many capable non-dyslexic applicants for the job who would have been able to pick up French much quicker and easier. To me, this is an example of a case where discrimination on the basis of disability is acceptable, because it could make a significant difference as to how well the organization could operate.