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Francois Paradis, the college’s director of information services, said Al-Khabaz was warned after being sighted twice in Dawson’s system before he reported the computer flaw. Paradis said Al-Khabaz was spotted again after being told about limitations on tests he could conduct after finding the flaw.

Dawson said it was speaking out because of what it called inaccuracies in a media barrage in the last 24 hours that has seen Al-Khabaz gain support from students beyond Montreal.

In Ottawa, Adam Awad, national chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students, accused Dawson of being more interested in protecting its own image than guarding students’ personal data.

“The administration chose to punish the whistle-blower in hopes that the problem would quietly go away,” Awad said as he called for Al-Khabaz to be reinstated.

Filion said Dawson considered pushing for criminal charges against Al-Khabaz, but the institution decided to deal with the matter on an academic level and leave any further action to Skytech.

Speaking to reporters after Dawson’s news conference, which he attended as a member of the audience, Al-Khabaz rejected the college’s version of events. He said it concentrated on “the negative stuff.”

“I was just scanning the software because I was scared for our data,” he said.

The student said he also asked for permission to do the later scan when he was told he was not authorized to carry out the task.

He said he had three meetings with college officials and explained what he was doing.