Kike Ojo-Thompson, a diversity trainer in Toronto, was explaining to her class of 200 or so public school administrators that Canada is a much more racist country than the United States.
“Canada is a bastion of white supremacy and colonialism,” Thompson said to a sea of nodding heads squeezed into Zoom. “The racism we experience is far worse here than there.”
It was April 26, 2021, and Thompson was leading attendees through a session on systemic inequity.
Anti-racism, diversity training under threat, say Black community leaders at Queen’s Park rally
Black community leaders rallied at Queen’s Park on Wednesday to fight against what they see as threats to anti-racism, diversity, and equity training in Ontario schools.
Advocates feel that work is under attack after the death by suicide of a former Toronto District School Board principal last month.
TDSB launches investigation in wake of former principal’s suicide
The Toronto District School Board said Thursday it is launching an investigation in the wake of the recent suicide of a former principal who said he was harassed and bullied during anti-racism training sessions held two years ago.
Richard Bilkszto, a 60-year-old retired principal, sued the TDSB earlier this year, alleging that his reputation was “systemically demolished” during two anti-Black racism training sessions in the spring of 2021 when, after he had challenged some of the speaker’s comments, he was allegedly singled out and accused of supporting white supremacy.
The suicide of former school principal Richard Bilkszto is an appalling tragedy and a warning that unless we stand up to woke, moralizing, antagonistic bullies who seek to shame Canadians then we are all complicit in such deaths.
The Tragic Case of Richard Bilkszto
Toronto principal Richard Bilkszto was widely acclaimed by family, friends and colleagues for the care he showed towards his students over the course of his 24-year career. He was a specialist in adult education, focusing on schools where students were aged 18 and up, having not graduated on time or just recently arrived in Canada as immigrants. When Bilkszto retired in 2019, a superintendent from the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) commended his great work: “You have proven your excellence in equity, instruction, entrepreneurship, student engagement and breaking new ground for communities where chronic struggles, mental health and newcomer status often brought more frustration than success”.
Ontario’s Education Minister says his office will review the circumstances that led to the recent death of a principal who had filed a lawsuit against the Toronto District School Board for failing to protect him after a confrontation during a diversity training session.
Stephen Lecce said in a statement on Monday evening that he asked his staff to review what happened “and bring me options to reform professional training and strengthen accountability on school boards so this never happens again.”
Nothing will come of this as Canada’s public service union culture is saturated with racists who support the KOJO bitch.
An Ontario principals’ group says it is concerned about the safety of staff from bullying and harassment following the recent death of an administrator who had filed a lawsuit against the Toronto District School Board for failing to protect him after a confrontation during a diversity training session.
Richard Bilkszto retired as a principal from the school board in 2019 after more than two decades, but continued to work on a contract basis. His lawyer, Lisa Bildy, said he died by suicide earlier this month.
In late April, 2021, a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) trainer named Kike Ojo-Thompson presented a lecture to senior Toronto public-school administrators, instructing them on the virulent racism that (Ojo-Thompson believes) afflicts Canadian society. Canada, she said, is a bastion of “white supremacy and colonialism,” in which the horrors unleashed by capitalism and sexism regularly lay waste to the lives of non-white and female Canadians.
The problem with workplace diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training is that it can involve the berating of staff so bad that it leads to worker’s compensation claims — and even lawsuits.
It’s a lesson that’s currently being learned by Toronto District School Board (TDSB). In April, principal Richard Bilkszto sued TDSB for its failure to defend him in an allegedly hostile DEI training session that took place in 2021, where it was insinuated that he was a white supremacist for defending Canada as a less-racist place than the United States. TDSB has since sued the company that gave the DEI training, the KOJO Institute, for negligence and for breaching contract — asking for damages in the amount it will need to pay Bilkszto if he wins.
I know I shouldn’t feel spasms of Alberta smugness about the chaotic state of Ontario higher-education admissions, explained superbly for CBC News by Mike Crawley. This was a tragedy, although one exacerbated by the pandemic, that you could see coming a quarter-century ago. “Before the COVID-19 pandemic,” Crawley writes, “the grades of Ontario high school students had increased gradually but steadily for years.” An education prof is on hand in the story to say that this could simply have been due to the ever-intensifying brilliance of Ontario students. And who would doubt it?
Some parents of kids at Toronto’s first, and only, public school with all gender-neutral washrooms are calling on the board to add separate facilities for boys and girls, saying they have concerns around safety, hygiene and comfort.
… There are moms and dads who support this, and some who are indifferent. But a group representing roughly 125 parents in the elementary school say kids have peeked beneath stall doors and kicked them while girls are inside, and a boy once exposed himself to a girl. They also say the washrooms, which have only toilets and no urinals, are dirty because urine is left on seats, with boys suspected of being the main culprits. And, they say the current setup can be uncomfortable for menstruating girls who need to unwrap a sanitary napkin or tampon within earshot of boys.
Muslim parents feel their religion isn’t being respected because a Muslim girl cannot remove her hijab in front of males — something she may do as part of wudu, a purification ritual that is performed before prayers, which includes washing the face.
It isn’t just Muslims, the TDSB Groomers hate normalcy and seek to indoctrinate their perversion in children.
White, South Asian and East Asian students in Toronto seem to be a problem for Canada’s largest public school board. They crowd the merit-based specialty education programs offered by the district.
The response from the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) to this overrepresentation has been to axe merit-based admissions and opt for a semi-random lottery system that discriminates based on race. Now, one-fifth of seats in Toronto’s public specialty programs are reserved for Black, Middle Eastern, Latin American and Indigenous students.
Racism is always the answer.
Parent groups called on Education Minister Stephen Lecce to conduct a provincial review of the Toronto District School Board after a researcher allegedly plagiarized parts of a report on its specialty programs and schools.
A review of TDSB research supporting a lottery for programs focused on arts, math, science and technology was conducted by University of Toronto economics professor Marcin Peski, who alleged that parts of the report were misleading and plagiarized and contained false citations and quotes from non-existent sources.
Not the first time the incompetents at the TDSB have been caught.
The Toronto District School Board says more than 300 students have been involved in violence on school property so far this academic year.
In a report on school safety, the TDSB says a total of 323 students have been involved in violence on school premises between September and April.
The board — which is sharing the report with trustees at a committee meeting today — says the number of students involved in violence this academic year so far is the highest since at least 2018-19.
Last year, in its wisdom, the Toronto District School Board decided that students applying for entrance to its specialized secondary schools for math, science, the arts and other subjects would no longer have to pass tests, do auditions or submit portfolios.
Backers of the idea said that these entrance hurdles favoured privileged students whose parents could afford lessons and tutors, giving them a leg up over other contenders. So the specialty schools tended to have fewer students from some racial groups than the public school system at large. Under the new system, says the TDSB, “priority is given to those from underserved communities” and “then a lottery is used for remaining spots.” Essentially, successful candidates are chosen by drawing names from a hat.
I am so grateful I went to TDSB schools before the racist rot set in. I pity the parents who can’t afford to home educate or send their children to private schools.
