Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom it May Concern:

Boozhoo (Hello),
My name is Courtney Wynne (20057096), I am going into my 4th year here at Queen's. I am writing to have 3 course deadlines extended: LLCU 270, LLCU 302, DEVS 221. All three of these courses were/are Winter 2020 term courses that I initially got an extension for until September 15, 2020.
Last school year, 2019-2020, was exceptionally difficult for many minority groups, specifically at Queen¿¿s. As an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe woman) and Is kwao (Moose Cree woman), the hate crimes committed against the Indigenous and 2sLGBTQIA+ community here at Queen's: Chown Hall (October 2019), destruction of the flags (July 2020) and tipi (July 2020) at 4D, along with the current racism and discrimination of Queen¿¿s (Stolen by Smith) being brought to light has significantly negatively impacted my mental health- I have depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD. Events outside of Queen¿¿s, though that doesn¿¿t exclude Queen¿¿s community¿¿s harmful involvement, such as Wet¿¿suwet¿¿en (Jan 2020-present), Six Nations (July 2020-present), and the Black Lives Matter movement (presently happening) have been emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically taxing. As an indigenous woman whose life greatly reaps the repercussions of Canada¿¿s violent acts against my people and relatives, the course material covered in these classes were/are triggers to the intergenerational trauma I carry and the traumas I have experienced myself.
In mid-June, as I was completing my courses, I started writing an essay on the relationships between women (mother and daughter) within Indigenous communities. This subject triggered my past traumas as a child, my depression and anxiety got really bad. At the time, my counsellor, Lisa Doxtator, was off from work and the counsellor who was supposed to fill in never contacted me. I was dealing with my PTSD alone, which was very hard and I was not able to tend to my courses any further.
Getting out of bed was rare and very hard when I did; I knew that if I did, I would have to look at my courses and be further (re)traumatized. Most Indigenous courses, whether the professor is indigenous or not, speak to all the violence my people endure(d). It is so normalized for Indigenous people to be (re)traumatized, there is little to no regard how that history affects us differently than non-Indigenous students. My anxiety sprouts from fear; the acts of terrorism here at Queen¿¿s and outside, along with my PTSD worsened my anxiety. I did not, and still do not, feel safe. When an individual feels unsafe, there is the fight or flight response; my anxiety (fear) paralyzes me. From my past traumas, I have a defense mechanism, that developed when I was a child, in order to protect me known as cognitive dissonance. Paralyzation and dissociating greatly hindered my ability to finish readings, assignments, tests and quizzes and therefore meet the due date for course completion.
Many events, within and outside of Queen¿¿s, have happened that I have had no control over have been detrimental to my mental health, overall impairing my ability to complete these 3 courses. Since the end of July, I have had weekly counselling sessions with Lisa Doxtator, bi-weekly sessions with a pyscho-therapist (Emily Blackmoon), and have started new medication that will hopefully help my depression and ADHD. I am taking steps to improve and better manage my mental health disorders. Although, I strongly believe the community (Queen¿¿s) that is a source of my poor mental health- affecting my performance in life, specifically school- needs to take responsibility and help me succeed. I hope that my appeal to extend the deadlines for these 3 courses is approved.

Miigwech(Thank you),
Courtney