Last July 25, just 12 days after Richard Bilkszto’s tragic suicide, education minister Stephen Lecce announced a review of the circumstances leading to his death.
Calling the allegations raised in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) principal’s $750,000 statement of claim against the board “serious and disturbing,” Lecce said he wanted to ensure what happened to Bilkzsto in a series of DEI workshops led by Kike Ojo-Thompson never happened again.
But seven months since Lecce’s pronouncement, the alleged review is nowhere, as is the one announced by TDSB education director Colleen Russell-Rawlins at the end of last July.
Bilkszto took his own life in mid-July of last year.
Both his lawyer Lisa Bildy and his family have said the 24-year much-loved principal was under immense stress after being humiliated by Ojo-Thompson—a race “expert” hired by the TDSB to preach anti-black racism dogma during a series of training sessions. The ones attended by Bilkszto were in late April and early May of 2021.
A Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) report agreed that during those sessions Ojo-Thompson’s conduct was “abusive, egregious and vexatious” and could be considered “workplace harassment and bullying.”
Despite the WSIB report, the TDSB anti-racism cabal ostracized him and cancelled contracts with him subsequent to the sessions.
Bilkszto filed a $750,000 lawsuit in April of 2023. But Bildy told True North this week that it is still on hold as the family continues to settle his estate.
An FOI request, received in November of last year, showed that Ojo-Thompson made $315,000 from the TDSB and the Peel District School Boards for her bully sessions during 2020 and 2021 alone.
Lecce said, when announcing the review last July, that the Bilkzsto tragedy points to the need for “greater accountability” by school boards to ensure DEI training is free from “harassment and intimidation.”
The minister indicated he was looking for “options to reform professional (DEI training).”
But seven months later, the review appears to be off the radar and filed under S, for swept under the rug.
In fact, I did not even receive the courtesy of an acknowledgement, let alone a response from Lecce’s media people, despite several attempts over the past few days to acquire a status update.
The TDSB did reply to my request to them for an update on the review also announced by Russell-Rawlins.
That review was to be led by King International Group, an outside consultant.
But spokesman Ryan Bird, told me that they “don’t have a date when the review will be complete.”
In other words, it’s all smoke and mirrors — swept under the rug by an education director who likely hopes the tragedy will fade from everyone’s memory and an education minister who doesn’t have the courage to take on the DEI industry.
The latest slap in the face to Bilkzsto’s memory came this past week when the TDSB released a teaching manifesto — Facilitating Critical Conversations — which claims that schooling in North America is a “colonial structure” and that “white supremacy” dominates classrooms.
The inane manual was created by four visible minority anti-racism and anti-oppression educators and includes advice straight out of the Critical Race Theory (CRT) playbook — which labels whites as oppressors and blacks as the oppressed.
TDSB teacher Natasha Mansouri, who is chairman of “Friends of Richard Bilkzsto,” said they have been “eagerly awaiting” the education minister to honor his word about a review but have yet to hear about any report seven months later.
She says last October 15 at Mel Lastman Square the friends of Richard made a promise to “honor his legacy” so his name will never be forgotten.
Mansouri expressed gratitude to all of those who have generously contributed to their fundraising efforts to create a scholarship in Bilkzsto’s name.
”We recognize that in this climate, it takes courage to even do so (contribute) and that is one of the principles Richard stood for, to stand up, take a stance and speak up” she said.
She added that countless articles have been written that directly or indirectly mention Bilkszto and the way he was treated because of his skin colour by other licensed educators.
There is still time to donate to the Richard Bilkszto Scholarship Fund at this link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/richard-bilkszto-scholarship
