Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said his department would be conducting a review into the details surrounding former Toronto District School Board (TDSB) principal Richard Bilkszto’s death. .“These are serious and disturbing allegations,” said Lecce in a Monday statement to the Toronto Sun. .“No staff member should ever be subject to harassment while in their place of work.” .Lecce said he has “tasked my officials to review what happened in this instance in the TDSB and bring me options to reform professional training and strengthen accountability on school boards so this never happens again.”.Bilkszto decided to sue the TDSB in April after he was cancelled for standing up against a diversity, inclusion, and equity training session in 2021. .READ MORE: CRESCIA: Saving the capitalist golden goose.KOJO Institute CEO and trainer Kike Ojo-Thompson said Canada is a more racist place than the United States because it is a bastion of white supremacy and colonialism, and she alleged capitalism and patriarchy are killing people..Bilkszto disagreed with Ojo-Thompson, and she insinuated he was a white supremacist. To add fuel to the fire, he was insulted by his management the following day for his male white privilege and reprimanded for speaking out. .Bilkszto killed himself on July 13 because of the mental anguish he was suffering from cancel culture. .READ MORE: Former Toronto principal commits suicide because of stress from being cancelled.“He was 60 years old,” said Libertas Law lawyer Lisa Bildy. .“He leaves his distraught mother, brother, nephews, niece, and many dear family and friends whose lives he touched over the years.” .Bilkszto said the disagreement between Ojo-Thompson and him started when he spoke about his experiences in schools in Toronto and Buffalo, NY. .“To sit here and talk about facts and figures and then walk into the classroom tomorrow and say ‘Canada is just as bad as the United States,’ I think we are doing an incredible disservice to our learners,” he said. .Ojo-Thompson dismissed his comment. .“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. .While he never denied racism is real and admitted it needs to be dealt with, he disagreed with her comparison. As she and fellow facilitators berated him in front of his colleagues, he alleged no one from the TDSB spoke up to defend him. .Ojo-Thompson berated him as a white supremacist, a resistor, and a person who the TDSB needed to deal for one hour one week later. He ended up on stress leave and sought a ruling from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), which found in his favour..“This conduct took place for over an hour, and noting that the speaker had sufficient opportunity to address you privately between April 26, 2021 and May 3, 2021, it would suggest that the speaker did so with the intent to cause reputational damage and to ‘make an example’ of you,” said a WSIB adjudicator. .The KOJO Institute said it had no involvement in the WSIB hearing..Bilkszto was never able to regain his position with the TDSB and his regular work was reduced to a few days here and there. .He launched a lawsuit against the TDSB, seeking $785,000 in damages. TDSB reacted by suing the KOJO Institute for negligence and breach of contract, seeking whatever amount it would be required to pay him if his claim was successful..The KOJO Institute has not filed a statement of defence in the lawsuit. It offered condolences to his family and denied the claims made against it in the lawsuits, “including the descriptions of interactions with KOJO Institute staff which paint an inaccurate and incomplete picture of training sessions that took place over two years ago.”.Toronto School Administrators’ Association (TSAA) Chair Rita Gallippi and Vice Chair Alisa Cashore led the charge for Education Ontario to conduct an investigation into Bilkszto’s death. .“TSAA will be requesting that an independent and impartial investigator be appointed by the Minister of Education to conduct a thorough inquiry into the concerns raised by Richard regarding his experience at the Professional Learning session in 2021 and everything that occurred thereafter,” said Gallippi and Cashore. .“As an organization serving over 1,000 Principals and Vice Principals within the TDSB, we have communicated on many occasions our concern about the lack of meaningful response from the employer when a Principal or Vice Principal experiences bullying, intimidation, or harassment in the course of their professional practice.”
