The Ontario Principals’ Council (OPC) has issued a statement following the suicide death of retired Toronto District School Board (TDSB) principal Richard Bilkszto, stating that employers have an obligation to protect their staff from bullying and harassment and that the TDSB clearly failed to do so.
It noted: “Employers have an obligation to provide a safe working environment and to protect their staff from bullying and harassment, including from external service providers. As was determined by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), the TDSB failed to do so for Mr. Bilkszto.”
The council added that it is “deeply concerned about the potential for this type of harm to occur to other educators” and that “all efforts must be made to prevent this from ever happening again.”
While the OPC’s statement condemned the situation, it also said “ongoing equity, diversity and inclusion [EDI] training for administrators and all school staff is important,” noting that there are “many systemic patterns and practices in schools that continue to create barriers for some students and staff, usually those that are traditionally underrrepresented and under-served.”
‘Equity Sessions’
Mr. Bilkszto’s lawyer, Lisa Bildy, on July 20 announced that her client, who had worked for the TDSB for 24 years, had died on July 13 at his home in Toronto at age 60. Mrs. Bildy said Mr. Bilkszto experienced an “affront to that stellar reputation in the spring of 2021, causing him severe mental distress.”She referred to the WSIB ruling and said it confirmed that Mr. Bilkszto “had been the subject of workplace bullying after a series of ‘Equity Sessions’ coordinated by the TDSB and provided by the KOJO Institute.”
The KOJO Institute bills itself as a “leader in equity consulting” and was founded by Kike Ojo-Thompson, its CEO, who describes herself as “an anti-racism and anti-Black racism educator, speaker, and organizational change facilitator.”
Mr. Bilkszto had filed a civil lawsuit this spring against the TDSB, alleging he had been bullied during the EDI training sessions in 2021. There, Ms. Ojo-Thompson reportedly said his comments were an example of “resistance” that upholds white supremacy after he said her argument that Canada is a more racist place than the United States was “doing an incredible disservice to our learners.”
The TDSB did not return requests for comment by press time.
After Mr. Bilkszto made his comments disagreeing with Ms. Ojo-Thompson, the Postmedia article said the trainer is described to have reacted harshly, telling the class, “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?”
Mr. Bilkszto allegedly replied that racism is very real and that there’s plenty of room for improvement but that the facts still show Canada is a fairer place. Another KOJO facilitator then allegedly told Mr. Bilkszto that “if you want to be an apologist for the U.S. or Canada, this is really not the forum for that.”
Ms. Ojo-Thompson allegedly then told the group, “your job in this work as white people is to believe,” not to question claims of racism.
Principal Known for Anti-Racism Efforts
On July 21, the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) issued a statement saying that Mr. Bilkszto was involved in the early stages of establishing FAIR in Canada and supported school board candidates in the work of FAIR, “promoting a common culture based on fairness, understanding, and humanity.”“As a teacher, he was passionate about public education that provided the best possible opportunities for ALL students and was a brave voice in defending equal opportunity within his school community. Our thoughts are with his family and closest friends as they grieve,” said FAIR.
Following the training session, Mr. Bilkszto went on sick leave for six weeks for workplace harassment. The Toronto School Administrators’ Association called for an investigation into what happened, and Mr. Bilkszto requested that TDSB investigate, but no investigation took place.
The WSIB awarded Mr. Bilkszto loss of earnings benefits for some seven weeks, between May 11 and July 1, 2021, for chronic mental stress. It said Ms. Ojo-Thompson’s conduct was “abusive, egregious and vexatious, and rose to the level of workplace harassment and bullying” in how she treated Mr. Bilkszto. The ruling also said Ms. Ojo-Thompson intended to “cause reputational damage and to ‘make an example’” of Mr. Bilkszto.
However, Mr. Bilkszto wasn’t reinstated to his former position, and an additional contract to serve as principal for another term was revoked. He was also uninvited from attending a graduation ceremony.
Reaction
In her statement, Ms. Bildy said: “Unfortunately, the stress and effects of these incidents continued to plague Richard. Last week he succumbed to this distress.”She added, “His family and friends have been left reeling and wishing they could have had the chance to convince him that he was loved, respected and needed here.”
In a tweet on July 23, Mr. Bennett said he was waiting to see what the Ontario government would do to “address the problem & prevent it from happening again.”
He called for schools to use “consultants who address injustice without sowing division.”
“A small contingent of activists with extreme views, packaged as virtuous or necessary (at least initially), beguiles their way in like a Trojan Horse & shames everyone else into silence,” she said.
According to Ms. Bildy, for most people it’s easier psychologically to go along with the program, “even as the demands and cognitive dissonance become greater, because dissent soon becomes punishable. And who wants to be punished?”
“History is replete with examples of this psychological abuse & it never ends well. That’s why it’s critically important to protect & encourage freedom of speech, so ideas can be challenged or improved before they become orthodoxy. We can’t continue as a free country otherwise,” she said.
