Alberta Student Denied Emotional Support Pipeline by ATS

SPADINA & COLLEGE -- Dealing with Accommodated Testing Services can be difficult. Between filling out forms, going to interviews, and finding the Accessibility Services office, many people have legitimate grievances which lead them to be frustrated with ATS. The Boundary was going to interview one such student for a story about accessibility. Unfortunately, all of them had lives. Instead, The Boundary interviewed an individual with more questionable reasons to be frustrated.

Craig Smith from Balzac, Alberta is a student studying Mineral Engineering at U of T who has recently been denied accommodations. “[profanity] Carney said he’d [profanity] get us a [profanity] pipeline, but when I go to [profanity] ATS to get one for my [profanity] exams, they won’t even [profanity] build a single [profanity] pipeline in the [profanity] exam rooms”, he complained. “Something about it [profanity] ‘being disruptive to the’ [profanity] ‘testing environment, creating the risk of an oil spill in the’ [profanity] ‘exam rooms,’ and ‘not actually having a practical’ [profanity] ‘use.’”

When asked why he needed a pipeline to write his tests, Smith sipped from his glass of crude oil and claimed “the [profanity] Laurentian Elite never [profanity] let [profanity] Albertans have [profanity] anything. Without a pipeline for [profanity] emotional support, Western Alienation makes it impossible to [profanity] write a test” 

Upon being further questioned by The Boundary, Smith claimed that ATS was full of “Trudeau-appointed staff” and that he was seeking recourse with the Federal, Albertan, and American governments. If recourse is not provided, Smith will apparently have to "succeed [sic, probably ‘secede’] from the [profanity] University” (which he insisted was different from dropping out).

A spokesperson from the Province of Alberta said they are “petitioning the University to allow pipelines for Western Canadian students” and a spokesperson for the Government of Canada said they are “considering putting pressure on the University to allow Albertans their pipelines and fund their construction,” as is now government policy.