Jamie Sarkonak: Toronto principal bullied over false charge of racism dies from suicide

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.

Yeah, certain areas of Canada may be more racist than certain areas of the US, and certainly racist in different ways towards different cultures, but it's pretty hard to compare to the deep south where in some places they'd happily bring back slavery if they had the opportunity to do so.

Any stark difference that you can see is projection. We're peas in a pod.

Lol you're a terrible human being.

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.

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?

I don't think you should assume that without knowing.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/former-principal-who-sued-tdsb-over-alleged-bullying-during-anti-racism-training-dies-by-suicide/article_4b9f98a9-7394-5517-909b-c69eb581aec9.html

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.

If you are more interested in arguing that we aren't as bad as the States, than learning about your potential aggressions, you only care about your own feelings.

I shouldn't have to tell you that making sensitivity training into massaging your ego is a shitty look for a lib