Illiteracy can be a disability: judge

The National Post – Thursday, August 1, 2002BY JANICE TIBBETTS OTTAWA BUREAU Inability to read shouldn’t prevent citizenship: ruling Ottawa – A judge has declared that illiteracy can be a mental disability and it should not prevent a Somali woman from becoming a Canadian citizen, even though she cannot learn either official language or answer basic questions about the country. Justice Michael Kelen, of the Federal Court of Canada, has ordered a citizenship judge to reconsider Faduma Hassan’s eight year quest to become a Canadian, taking into account evidence that the 55 year old Toronto woman has shown a “medical inability” to learn a new language. Mrs. Hassan, who came to Canada in 1994, has twice failed the test to become a citizen, despite taking daily English lessons. She has made little progress because she is illiterate and never attended school in Somalia, so she was never taught how to learn,…