A military family in Newfoundland and Labrador feels it was duped by Memorial University as it jumped through all the hoops only to find that, in the eyes of MUN and government, they were not from Newfoundland and Labrador.

But the former education minister says both Memorial and Government have it all wrong.

Rebecca McDonald, who wants to apply to the Faculty of Medicine as a local resident will, instead, have to compete to get one of the six seats allocated for applicants from the rest of Canada.

Oddly, she was accepted by MUN as a resident of the province for her under-grad, but the university informed the family a few days ago that provincial legislation declares her to be an outsider.

Becky’s father, Col. Tony McDonald, says moving hither, dither and yon was a fact of life with being in the military. He and his wife are from NL, and have been back on their home soil for some time.

“So what that means is that my daughter is out for at least a year before she can apply as a Newfoundland resident – and that’s assuming that they change the legislation so that she can apply as a Newfoundlander instead of a mainlander,” says Col. McDonald.

Former minister Bernard Davis says under the Memorial University Act, government has the authority to designate other appropriate requirements to qualify as a resident. He says the Liberals ensured that there was regulation-making authority to address unique situations such as this, and he’s calling on the authorities to do just that.