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“Students are expressly told this informal certificate is not a credential but is simply recognition from the instructors of the student’s achievements and hard work during the year,” the statement of defence said.

Tong claims that when she applied to take the Aboriginal stream within the Faculty of Child, Family and Community Studies, she was promised a “completion certificate” and wouldn’t have enrolled if she wasn’t going to receive it, she said.

The Aboriginal stream comprises four courses and a practicum taken part-time over eight months. Course credits can be applied to two diplomas and a certificate program.

Tong said that red flags went up when after a delay of months she received “a sheet of paper” that listed the courses she took.

“That sheet, it’s so Mickey Mouse coming out of a college,” she said. “It wasn’t an official Douglas College document.”

Photo by Submitted / PNG

She was further angered when she noticed the document was “quite wrinkled and it had a small little rip in the corner.

“So much time and effort and money went into that course and the least they could have done was to provide us with a document that isn’t all damaged.”

The college replaced the document but wouldn’t provide what Tong said she and the other 19 students in her 2015-2016 school year were promised, an official college certificate.

Tong, a Richmond lawyer and former public prosecutor in Labrador, said the official document would provide her with more credentials to apply for jobs in the child welfare field, where she intends to work.

“I wanted to have that recognition, a document that showed I know about Aboriginal history and residential schools and their effect on Aboriginal people,” she said, adding she was happy with the course.

She filed the claim because the college “refused to correct or address my concerns.”

“I’m not overly confident but I feel strongly in what I believe,” said Tong.

slazaruk@postmedia.com