Sadly, America is not the only place with homophobic wretches ...

IMPORTANT – It's now been shown, beyond reasonable doubt, that this is a hoax. First, there were the suspicious 'letters', the paper trail of incriminating eMails sent back and forth between Ninoska and Tassy Knightly, which appear(ed) to have been doctored (a bit of text was misaligned, which certainly does not happen on its own in HTML, and appears to be the result of a not-quite-perfect Copy & Paste operation); and just now, PZ Myers over at his post on this topic at Pharyngula has just pinpointed that several commentators on the thread, along with the user of the site that originally hosted the pics before it was removed (a highly suspicious action in and of itself), actually come from the very same IP address. Perhaps not absolutely incriminating, but this shows beyond reasonable doubt that not only were the eMails faked, but that posters claiming to be Ninoska and Tassy, along with a few others, are impostors. It's my conclusion, according to the evidence, that the whole thing is apparently a lie aimed at discrediting and defaming the College Ninoska supposedly was flunked from. Quite unfortunate that many were lead into this. At least now its a matter for the courts.

Canada has them too, far more than we're given credit for. The only difference is ours tend to be more hush-hush – homophobia is heavily discouraged in our culture and common mindsets – but every once in a while it does rear its ugly head, though always eventually squashed (rightly so) by outraged reprisals.

The following is a story that personally touches me – not only because it's an outrageous and at times heartbreaking story about virulently homophobic discrimination against an innocent and defenseless person, but because it even happened right here, in Gatineau, in Québec. I do hate it when these sorts of stories emerge from my homeland – like anyone else would hate it when criminally vile events occur in their homelands, I suppose.

In this case, it's the story of Ninoska, a College student who was intentionally flunked out of her courses to become a Registered Nurse, by her homophobic teacher who describes her distaste for lesbian nurses. Below is the full content of the horrible eMail sent to Ninoska from the bitch teacher, Tassy Kingsley (who apparently can't capitalize worth a damn – as if she needed further discrediting).

Nioska, I've been thinking about the meeting in rita's office and I feel that maybe Nursing is the wrong career for you. As a nurse, I have to advocate for my patients, and i feel that female patients will be uncomfortable having a lesbian nurse caring for them. You do not provide a sense of security to patients when you keep important information from them. Your sexual orientation is something important that patients have a right to know so that they can decide if they wish to have you as their caregiver. I myself am not homophobic at all, but I would not want a lesbian nurse caring for me when I am vulnerable. I would just not feel comfortable with that.

I think it might be best if you see student services to explore other career options that do not involve physical interaction, and intimacy. It wuold look better if you left nursing out of your own accord, rather than get kicked out.

i am just being honest. at the beginning of the rotation you asked me to be honest in my feedback, and i am doing just that.

Tassy

... Thus again irrefutably proving that anytime where someone starts a sentence by 'I am not an anti-[minority], but ...', it's crystal clear that, in fact, they very much are despite their pathetic cowardly claims to the otherwise. 'I am just trying to help' ... No, you are just trying to ruin this poor girl's education, potential career, and life, according to Ninoska's personal account further below.

For anyone interested in venting, send some eMails to Tassy at TKINGSLEY@cegep-heritage.qc.ca. (Once again, Pharyngulites never cease to satisfy any sleuth's needs in terms of digging stuff up.)

There is quite a long story behind this, which anyone interested can follow over on Ninoska's Flickr page, which chronographs her perilous history with this Tassy wretch.

Ninoska then wrote a full account of everything that happened – and what it pushed her to doing.

I am a second year Nursing student. One week after sending receiving this email from my clinical instructor, she failed me in my Pediatrics clinical rotation. The official infractions were cited as "wrinkled uniform, rudeness and disrespect." To fail clinical, means you fail the class. You fail the class; you're out of the program. On December 12, 2008 I was permitted to write my final exam, leading me to believe that I had succeeded in stomaching the nauseatingly difficult semester. However, at my clinical evaluation, which took place right after the exam, I was informed that I had failed clinical. Since clinical itself was not worth a numeric grade, it was just "pass" or "fail", my grade was dropped from 92% to 50% - to reflect the fail.

I commenced the appeals process immediately, and at first nobody was interested in allowing me to plead my case. It wasn't until I sent the appeal to the Ministry of Education, and they contacted the school, that the College realized my dismissal from the program was based on much more than academics. The college decided that it would do an internal investigation.

This internal "investigation" has dragged on now for four months. Over the past few weeks the college has become sadistic in their actions. When one of the emails was posted on reddit.com, both the College and the clinical instructor were inundated with hate emails. The college sent me a "Cease & Desist" letter, threatening legal action if I continued to "[spread] information that is false, defamatory, or that could cause prejudice to anyone at the college."

However, after sending this "gag order", the school felt that it was their right to inform my Nursing class that I "suing the school for homophobia" (at that point, it was just an academic appeal, which is supposed to be confidential). I will never deny my sexual orientation; however, it's also not something I feel the need to go out of my way to inform others about, especially if it's not relevant. I was not "out" to everyone in my class, as the topic or opportunities never presented themselves in the academic setting. The school felt it was their responsibility to "out" me.

Events culminated when the College demanded I hand over my hard drives, laptops, and desk top computers (all belonging to me). I realized that the reason the appeal was dragging on was because the College knew the clinical teacher is in fact a racist, homophobic bigot, but tenureship and a union gave her immunity - including the right to discriminate. Therefore, it was vital that I somehow be discredited.

The demands, the humiliation, the degradation, the dehumanization was only going to end when I was discredited, or when I decided to walk away. The realization was overwhelming and suffocating. I attempted, but failed to commit suicide by slashing my arms.

Due to being in hospital, I was unable to meet with their investigator for a second time. I had requested the right to attend this meeting accompanied by someone, and it was denied. When they were informed that I was not able to attend the meeting, they demanded a Medical certificate with a diagnosis, [which is never detailed in a doctor's note (privacy, confidentiality)], for their "investigation" to proceed.

I gave them the medical certificate, which they stated it was necessary to have a diagnosis clearly indicated. Their insistence and persistence confirmed my suspicion that the only reason they wanted the diagnosis (suicide attempt) was so it could be used against me. I refused to acknowledge my reason for being in hospital, and demanded that attention be refocused on my initial complaint.

An issue that should have been resolved long ago is now cascading into other areas of my life. Yesterday morning I found out I was denied admission to the College I was requesting a transfer to. It is the first time in my whole life I have ever been denied admission to any post secondary school. The reason for being denied admission was cited as "weak grades" - which on my transcript laced with 80s and 90s, the only weak grade I have is the 50 from pediatrics.

I have yet to receive from the College a response or conclusion of the investigation, and my appeal.

This is just fucking sad, even more than it is outrageous. They pushed this poor girl to fucking attempted suicide ... and they're still trying to discredit her. Even trying to use said attempted suicide against her.

Is there really anything I can say that would make that more poignant?

All I can say in light of this horror of a story, is that thankfully, despite the occasional stupidity and hate, Québec is actually one of the most accepting places in the world to homosexuality, and the laws, federal and provincial, that protect people's rights in this sort of scenario are many, clear, and very harsh. I do hope these despicable excuses for human beings get everything they've ever had and ever will have skewered out of them by a well-deserved lawsuit, and that poor Ninoska will regain her well-deserved education and be a successful RN.