Joel Kotkin: Richard Bilkszto won’t be the last victim of the diversity-industrial complex

The suicide of former Toronto school principle Richard Bilkszto, 60, was one that many of his associates believe was prompted, at least in part, by vicious attacks from an “anti-racism” instructor. After he differed on her assessment of pervasive structural racism, she held up his comments as an example of “white supremacy.” In the progressive-dominated education bureaucracy, this stands as among the worst of sins.

Share

Canada Tests the Limits of Its Liberal Immigration Strategy

The intake of newcomers is rising rapidly and straining housing, healthcare and transportation

Canada is known for its embrace of immigrants and hasn’t experienced the same backlash that has been seen recently in countries such as the U.S. and the Netherlands. But new polling released last month from Ottawa-based Abacus Data reflects skepticism, with 61% of citizens saying the government’s plans are too ambitious because of the negative impact on housing and healthcare. The Canadian Medical Association said the country’s population-to-physician ratio ranks 29th out of 36 developed-world economies, while data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show Canada’s hospital-bed capacity is one of the lowest on a per-capita basis among rich-world economies.


Canada is known for its embrace of immigrants?

Submission to mass immigration is more like it.  Romanticized views of immigration in Canada are the domain of politicians selling snake oil nowadays.

No one signed on for an inundation of incompatible cultures or to have their own government dismiss their heritage and nation as so much racist garbage.

Multiculturalism was weaponized and the smear of racism was used as a bludgeon to smash dissent and ensure Canadians clapped like trained seals in approval whenever the topic of immigration was raised.

Ethnic disaporas possessed of little in common with Canadian values are catered to by our political class who tolerate the intolerable for votes.

Who asked that hiring decisions be made on the basis of government ordained victim status?

Who asked that being white be considered a virtual hate crime and Canada be turned into a low trust society?

Who asked for “racialized sentencing guidelines” for criminals as if the average Joe who just wants to be left alone is somehow responsible for the alleged historic oppression of predators?

No one asked for a balkanized society where foreign ethnic conflicts spill out into our streets.

Who asked for an immigration policy that does not benefit citizens?

No one asked because it was imposed upon us and its true purpose is to benefit the corporate and political classes at our expense. 

No one asked because divide and conquer works best when its victims are forbidden to talk about it until it’s too late.

This so called “embrace of immigration” is better described as a choke hold.

Share

Disturbing audio captures racism grifter attacking principal’s ‘white supremacy’ before he killed himself

An anti-racism instructor was recorded mocking and laughing at a beloved Toronto principal who challenged her teachings — holding him up as an example of white supremacy “resistance,” according to a report.

Richard Bilkszto, 60, later committed suicide.

Bilkszto’s July death came after diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, instructor Kike Ojo-Thompson proclaimed Canada was more racist than the United States, a statement the principal pushed back on.

Share

Conrad Black: Richard Bilkszto’s death was the end result of a culture intent on defaming itself


The tragic case of Richard Bilkszto, which shocked Canadians and was publicized internationally, highlights in their most extreme form, the dangers of the militant imposition of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) dogmas. On this occasion, Bilkszto, a well-respected Toronto District School Board (TDSB) principal, attended compulsory DEI sessions in which the lecturer, Kike Ojo-Thompson, upbraided him for disputing her statement that Canada was a more racist country than the United States. She apparently responded unpleasantly that, among other things, ”You in your whiteness think that you can tell me what’s really going on for Black people.” In a second session, she allegedly held Bilkszto’s comments up as a real-life example of being a white supremacist.

Share

ZWAAGSTRA: Woke ideology destroying diversity of thought in schools

His name was Richard Bilkszto and he had a distinguished 24-year career as a school teacher, teaching in both the United States and Canada. Most recently, he worked as a principal with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) where he consistently received outstanding performance reviews, at least until he ran afoul of the woke ideology being pushed by his employer.

Won’t happen until a new broom sweeps all of the TDSB’s commie trash into the dustbin.

Share

Why should Vikings be diverse?

I don’t always watch ‘Strongest Viking’ competitions on cable. But the other day I was channel-hopping and became mesmerised by one. Firstly because I wasn’t previously aware that such banality was possible on television. People really watch men trying to push a stone or pull a rope? This was new data to me. But I also stayed because I was struck by the sheer lack of diversity.

Share

A Racist Smear. A Tarnished Career. And the Suicide of Richard Bilkszto.

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.

Share

Does KOJO Kontroversy Spell Grift’s End?

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.

Share

WARMINGTON: Plot thickens in principal’s tragic suicide

The plot has thickened in the tragic suicide of a school principal, as documents now show the equity and diversity training — alleged to have led to his downfall — was awarded as a sole-sourced contract.

Share

Fox to probe chicken death

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.

Share

Diversity Programs Miss the Point of a Liberal College Education

Academia is in the midst of a generational turmoil. Blue states such as California and Oregon have recently transformed their public universities with expansive “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs that have profound implications for admissions, speech, hiring and scholarship. Red states such as Florida and Texas have recently passed legislation abolishing them, concluding that the programs that have sprung up to execute D.E.I. promote a stifling orthodoxy that undermines the pursuit of truth.

Share

RIP, Richard Bilkszto, a Toronto Educator Who Stood up to Woke Bullying—and Paid the Price

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.

Share

Ten Reasons Why Affirmative Action Died

The end of affirmative action was inevitable. The only surprise was that such intentions gone terribly wrong lasted so long.

First, supporters of racial preferences always pushed back the goal posts for the program’s success. Was institutionalized reverse bias to last 20 years, 60 years, or ad infinitum?

Parity became defined as an absolute equality of result. If “equity” was not obtained, then only institutionalized “racism” explained disparities. And only reverse racism was deemed the cure.

Share

The “Chilling” Effect

Florida’s tenured radicals say that my reporting is making them “nervous.” Good.

My recent reporting on radical DEI programming in state universities, which helped pave the way for the abolition of those programs by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, has apparently made left-wing academics in Florida’s public universities nervous.

Last week, University of Central Florida professor Robert Cassanello told the Tampa Bay Times that his colleagues are terrified of being exposed publicly. “They’re changing their classes or they’re not assigning books they would normally assign out of fear that if that stuff gets published that Chris Rufo is going to come and target them and tweet about them and they’ll be in the crosshairs,” Cassanello said.

Share

White pupils excluded from extra Saturday literacy lessons

White pupils have been excluded from extra weekend literacy classes at schools in North London, The Telegraph can reveal.

Parents at a primary school in Haringey have been told that schools will fund Saturday school places for children from black and black heritage families to “accelerate progress in reading and writing whilst also developing the children’s knowledge of black history and culture”.

However, no comparable offer was made for white pupils despite parents arguing that evidence shows white working-class boys have fallen behind their peers.

This sort of diseased thinking crops up too often for it to be accidental.

Share