‘Your Job in This Work as White People Is to Believe,’ DEI Instructor Tells Principal Who Later Committed Suicide

The Toronto District School Board logo is seen on a sign in front of a high school in Toronto, in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Frank Gunn)

The disturbing audio recordings have been released of a number of “diversity, equity, inclusion training” (DEI) sessions that school principal Richard Bilkszto participated in before his July 13 suicide. At one point in one of the recordings, educators are told, “Your job in this work as white people is to believe.”

The zoom audio of Kojo Institute CEO Kike Ojo-Thompson, a self-described “anti-racism and anti-Black racism educator, speaker, and organization change facilitator,” starts with her stating that the racism experienced in Canada “is far worse here” than in the United States.

The audio was shared on Aug. 6 by The Free Press. The first recording took place at the session on April 26, 2021.

“I know that’s going to be a hard one for people to wrap their head around. But that’s the level of white supremacy, like Canada’s a bastion of white supremacy and colonialism,” states Ms. Ojo-Thompson in the recording.

She says the United States “at least had a fighting posture” against the monarchy, but Canada celebrates the monarchy, which she said was “the very heart and soul and origins of the colonial structure. Think about that.”

Mr. Bilkszto, a 24-year veteran educator at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), challenged that statement, sharing that he did his student teaching in the United States, in fact at a mostly black high school in Buffalo, New York.

He said that in Ontario, “every student is funded equally,” whereas in the United States, students are funded based on their tax base.

At this point Ms. Ojo-Thompson begins interrupting Mr. Bilkszto, saying, “I’m not arguing what you said.”

“I’m talking about the principle of your point. It’s not about what you said, it’s about a court of law,” said Ms. Ojo-Thompson. “ What I’m saying to you is that, what racialized people experience in this province, is that it absolutely matters where you live.”

“How it’s lived out in Ontario is not as you say,” said the DEI facilitator. She said that despite “our equal laws, ... kids are still experiencing systemic inequities, systemic inequities, so that’s the point.”

Mr. Bilkszto said in response: “We have a public education system, where everyone is funded the same way. ... We have a health-care system here, where everyone has access to health care. It is not the same way in the United States.”

‘You and Your Whiteness’

“What I’m finding interesting is that in the middle of this COVID disaster, where the inequities in this fair and equal health-care system have been properly shown to all of us, ... we’re here to talk about racism, but you and your whiteness think that you can tell me what’s really going on for black people?” Ms. Ojo-Thompson said to Mr. Bilkszto.

“Is that what you’re doing? I think that’s what you’re doing. But I’m not sure. So I’m gonna leave you space to tell me what you’re doing right now,” she continues.

At this point, a second male facilitator, Andrew, jumps in the conversation. “We’re not here to compare,” he says.

The man said that a black or indigenous student in the TDSB “has the same access to education as a white student, but they don’t have the same outcomes.”

“I hate to disagree with you in this forum, it’s just not relevant what you bring up,” said the man. “So, if you want to be an apologist for the United States or Canada, this really isn’t the forum for that.”

Ms. Ojo-Thompson then picks up on the conversation. “When it’s not your personal experience, remember, as white people, there’s a whole bunch going on that isn’t your personal experience. It will never be. You will never know it to be so,” she says with emphasis.

“Your job in this work as white people is to believe,” she states, adding, “This was a profound and appropriate teachable moment.”

She then appears to mock the principal, saying, “I just put up some examples of anti-black racism in education—in this profoundly better system that we’re in.”

“One of the ways that white supremacy is upheld, protected, reproduced, upkept, defended is through resistance,” says Ms. Ojo-Thompson, who reportedly charged the Toronto District School Board almost $81,000 for four, two-hour DEI sessions.

“I’m so lucky,” she says, laughing, “we got perfect evidence of a wonderful example of resistance that you all got to bear witness to. So we’re gonna talk about it. Because I mean, it doesn’t get better than this,” says Ms. Ojo-Thompson, who has not returned requests for comment from The Epoch Times.

At the conclusion of the session, the facilitator then says, “I just want to thank everybody for a proper, thorough session today. We got into the weeds and got the weed whacker out apparently. It was hot today. It was good. It was really good.”

‘Discomfort’

The same day, April 26, 2021, TDSB’s then-executive superintendent of education posted a message on Twitter thanking the KOJO Institute in apparent reference to what happened at the DEI session.

“When faced with resistance to addressing Anti-Black racism [ABR], we can’t remain silent as it reinforces harm to Black students and families,” wrote Sheryl Robinson Petrazzini, a black educator. “Thank you @KOJOInstitute for modelling the discomfort administrators may need to experience in order to disrupt ABR.”

A lawyer representing Mr. Bilkszto sent a letter to Ms. Robinson Petrazzini alleging that her tweet was “false and highly defamatory” and demanding it be removed.

“In effect, you were thanking Ms. Ojo-Thompson for engaging in the workplace harassment and bullying of my client,” read the letter. It said the tweet suggests that Mr. Bilkszto “was in fact engaging in Anti-Black Racism that required ‘disruption’ by Ms. Ojo-Thompson’s bullying and harassing behaviour.”

Ms. Robinson Petrazzini, who did not respond to requests for comment by press time, was appointed education director at the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board a year later, on July 7, 2022.

In a statement at the time, Ms. Robinson Petrazzini said, “I firmly believe in public education as an equalizer and a vehicle for social justice and change.”

‘Resistance’

In a subsequent DEI session, Ms. Ojo-Thompson invited the group of an estimated 200 educators, which included Mr. Bilkszto, to “verbalize out your mouth” the so-called “resistance” in terms of what they noticed at the previous session.

Although Ms. Ojo-Thompson was the one who first mentioned a comparison between Canada and the United States in the earlier session, one of the participants then says “the tendency to make comparisons to the States is an act of resistance.”

Another educator speaks up and said that in the last session what she “noticed was this refusal to accept what was being said by [Ms. Kojo-Thompson].”

“I believe I heard you say, ‘I’m a black woman and I’m telling [you] this, but yet, the whiteness said, ’No, right? This is what I’m telling you.' And that’s often the posture, is, nobody, they don’t want to hear what you’re saying,” said the session participant.

Earlier in the session, Ms. Ojo-Thompson spoke about it being “not unimportant that I’m a black woman,” and suggesting that “there’s a tone that wouldn’t be done if I was a white man” and calling it “interpersonal power relations” and “power relations in terms of identity.”

“I think what’s more contentious here in this context, is that silence has been such a role of comfort for all of us,” said Ms. Ojo-Thompson, “like this silent sideline watching voyeurism of all kinds of violent white supremacist resistance takedowns.”

Review

Education Minister Stephen Lecce said on July 24 that his office will be conducting a review of the case to identify “options to reform professional training and strengthen accountability on school boards so this never happens again.”

Before his death on July 13, Mr. Bilkszto had filed a lawsuit against the TDSB as a result of his experience.

“Bilkszto left the training session feeling humiliated, attacked, unsupported, harassed and alone. He suffered mental distress as a result,” the statement of claim said.

His lawyer said the DEI training caused him “severe mental stress” and forced him to go on sick leave.

A mental stress injury claim was also filed with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) in May 2021, citing workplace harassment. The WSIB decision ruled in his favour and Mr. Bilszto was advised by a letter dated Aug. 16, 2021, that he was awarded almost two months of lost earnings in a ruling that described Ms. Ojo-Thompson as engaging in behaviour that was “abusive, egregious and vexatious.”

Mr. Bilkszto, aged 60 when he died, was retired but continued to do contract work for the TDSB. He took his own life on July 13.