Jamie Sarkonak: Toronto principal bullied over false charge of racism dies from suicide
Jamie Sarkonak: Toronto principal bullied over false charge of racism dies from suicide
Inquiry needed into the death of Richard Bilkszto
God. I don’t even know what to say.
The article reads so strange…like describing a cult.
His stellar career took on a sour note after he was bullied in a diversity, equity and inclusion training session for Toronto District School Board (TDSB) administrators in 2021, according to a lawsuit Bilkszto filed in court. His sin, in the eyes of facilitators at the KOJO Institute, was his questioning of their claim that Canada was a more racist place than the United States. Canada wasn’t perfect, he said, but it still offers a lot of good. For the rest of the training session, and throughout a follow-up training session the week after, facilitators repeatedly referred to Bilkszto’s comments as examples of white supremacy.
That’s because it is a cult. No one could seriously claim that Canada was more racist than America.
We certainly have issues. And our treatment of several marginalized groups leave a bad taste in one’s mouth, but more racist?
What's the value in even framing the situation as competitive? This man responded with a reasonable take for such a shit claim. This is another reminder for me to keep my mouth shut more often than not.
Fuck, are white men not allowed to have opinions anymore?
Of course we are.
We're just not stupid enough to think our opinions will be unchallenged when they're idiotic and/or contrafactual and/or hate-fuelled.
That's equality, my friend. Your first taste of it apparently.
That's because what you're reading is from a cult. What unbiased piece of journalism would say someone was bullied into a DEI class? It really says everything about the case and yeah if you believe that you should blow your brains out or whatever this loser did.
Lol you're a terrible human being.
His sin, in the eyes of facilitators at the KOJO Institute, was his questioning of their claim that Canada was a more racist place than the United States.
I would like to see a less biased story about this. It's sad what happened to this man, and I'm not even saying he did anything wrong, but I don't buy that the above quote is all that happened.
Went looking for sources and this is all I found on Ground…
Not exactly the balance you were looking for…
Edit: here’s another, slightly more sane reporting:
KOJO absolutely does believe Canada is more racist than the US because it suits them. No evidence behind it though.
Wow. Just fucking wow. I really hope those administrators feel really proud of how much good they did. They were so inclusive in their equality training that they bullied a man to suicide. Fucking go them.
They are just going to hide and blame KOJO, even though they support what they say. Nothing will happen to either since he committed suicide. If they get sued, they will just pay and it will go away. Nothing will change.
Yeah, this is very disingenuous. He actually was a racist, and there is no established connection with his suicide. Many racists kill themselves often.
Did you know him personally?
Aside from his work as an educator, Bilkszto was an advocate. He was a member of the Toronto chapter of the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), an advocacy organization dedicated to civil rights and anti-discrimination, which he took the lead in establishing. In education specifically, he was a member of SOS TDSB, an organization working to preserve the district’s merit-based admissions system for specialty programs (the TDSB recently began using a lottery system to admit students, to the ire of many).
“Richard Bilkszto was a great man,” read the statement of SOS TDSB. “He contributed so much to the fight for quality education, for fairness and a better school system, and we are all so much poorer for his loss. Our heart goes out to his family, friends, and the thousands of students and colleagues he knew, and loved, and who loved him in return.”
Yeah...He sounds like such a racist.
Proof that he was racist?
This guy was absolutely right. If you don't believe me, spend some time in the Southern US, where slavery was once a hallowed institution, desegregation was fought against tooth and nail, and racism continues to be deeply engrained into the collective psyche.
Sickening.
The guy was a class act, voiced his opinion, and then got fucking HAMMERED by his board.
Completely awful
Sounds more like he chose the easy way out after being confronted with their biases.
It's amazing how everyone takes the opinion columns like gospel.
Explains why people think that BLM burned down half the states.
Hard to feel bad about someone more interested in whataboutism than they are understanding other people problems.
How is that a whataboutism?
How is questioning the validity of a statement not trying to understand other people's problems?
Not that I trust NatPo, but there isn't any other info (that I have seen) that points to this man being a white supremacist.
The conflict arose after Ojo-Thompson is alleged to have suggested that Canada was more racist than the U.S., in part because Canada has “never reckoned with its anti-Black history” in the way the U.S. has.
Bilkszto, who previously taught high school in Buffalo, N.Y., disagreed with the statement. He said it would be “an incredible disservice to our learners” to suggest the U.S. is a more just society than Canada.
Bilkszto’s lawsuit alleges Ojo-Thompson reacted “with vitriol.”
“We are here to talk about anti-Black racism, but you in your whiteness think that you can tell me what’s really going on for Black people?” she said, according to Bilkszto’s lawsuit.
Bilkszto claims he tried to de-escalate the situation, admitting there was anti-Black racism in Canada but argued that the evidence suggests “we are a far more just society” than the U.S.
At this point, according to Bilkszto’s lawsuit, another KOJO facilitator intervened, saying what Bilkszto was bringing up was not relevant.
The facilitator allegedly said if Bilkszto wanted to be “an apologist” for Canada or the U.S. the session was “not the forum for that.”
Another session was held a week later. At the beginning of the session, according to Bilkszto’s lawsuit, Ojo-Thompson referred to what happened the previous week and described it as a “real-life” example of resistance in support of white supremacy.
Bilkszto claims in his lawsuit that the statement, among others, implicitly referred to him as a racist and white supremacist.
The Star had begun reporting on the lawsuit prior to Bilkszto’s death.
In a July 7 statement, the KOJO Institute said it disputes many of the allegations in Bilkszto’s lawsuit against the TDSB, “including the descriptions of interactions with KOJO Institute staff which paint an inaccurate and incomplete picture” of what happened in the sessions.
They said it would be “inappropriate” to comment further since the matter was before the courts.
YMMV on whether it was whataboutism or not, but regardless, it was pretty clearly not malicious, and it's a shame that the distress over the incident led him to suicide considering his positive record in the schooling system.
What a disgusting, trash-human fucking take.
Really glad most people don’t think like you or the world would be an even shittier place.