I, too, met Richard on Zoom in the early days of Lighthouse and its anti-woke battle. Richard had the whole package. What a marvellous principal he must have been. James Pew writes: “Over the course of two sessions Richard was singled out and humiliated. For pushing back on the claim that Canada is a racist dystopia, it was insinuated that he was a white supremacist.” This sort of thing happens all the time. Critical Social Justice warriors get nasty and inquisitor-like and go on the blood hunt. That no colleague spoke in his defence is deplorable. That’s our world. Let’s keep fighting the good fight for a saner world for ourselves, and for Richard.
Thank you, James, for this heartfelt piece on dear Richard B, whom I also knew, as I imagine many others did. In fact, the last contact I had with him was 5 days before this terrible and tragic event that should not have happened. If only I had had an inkling. The "ifs" and regrets will haunt us endlessly.
Richard was such a great person, with a heart of gold - always ready to listen and help - and he deeply cared about ALL students. He did not need any anti-racism training, and most, if not all of us, don't either. Besides, what kind of anti-racism training, uses racism and humiliates people?
How many others have been or are being treated this way in their workplace, in their community, or anywhere for that matter? This madness has to stop. This is killing our souls and the souls of our students/children. Enough already!
Richard would still be alive if our society had not gone so mad, if people had not been so passively compliant, deep in their beauty sleep, and ignorant to what is really happening.
He would still be alive if not for the "system". Crime has many shapes and forms.
Thank you Richard. I am grateful to have had the privilege to know you and learn from you.
Well said James , “we are all worse off because of it”
I had followed Richard's story. This is a really tragic outcome. My only hope (and I believe this) is that more sane people (and parents) are catching on to the inherent meanness in the DIE framework, and its inherent authoritarian nature. Any movement that deliberately shames people (and puts them through struggle sessions) is inherently toxic.
Thank you for keeping this horrific injustice current. It needs to be forefront of everyone’s minds when they choose a school for their child.
Hopefully the courts will see the insanity of this CRT, DEI, and all the other mantras projected as “social justice.” It is not. It is blindfolding honesty for a dishonest outcome.
This is how it goes. I got bullied out of a job for objecting to abusive DEI impositions that were severely affecting my mental health and ability to do my work. Not one colleague spoke up in my defense.
This tragic case must be highlighted to school boards and other related individuals when they go along with implementing radical, racist dogma such as suggesting white people belong to a culture of "white supremacists".
Go woke, go broke, now includes apparently breaking this man's heart! And ours. We must gather our courage as a result of learning about the UNFAIR suffering of this man and resolve not to let this disgraceful bullying continue.
Wonderful piece James, thank you. The bullying of the woke mob and the DEI struggle session along with the cowardly silence from his colleagues is disgraceful and appalling. Our loss of Richard makes me want to fight harder to rid this world of these illiberal cruel ideologies that are causing so much pain.
What a tragedy. May he rest in peace. I hope his colleagues think about what impact their silence had on him. It's hard to speak out but in that situation it really was imperative.
What I find is that today anyone who does not agree with the woke ideas is automatically branded as hateful and racist and if you happen to be a white male anglo saxon well then you have to be racist. If you wish to compound that and add that you are a proud straight married heterosexual male well the hounds of hell will bark at you calling you vile names and tar and feather you at the very least.
Go ahead, make my day punk I could not care less and you should not either, time to man up and stop this nonsense. Academics need to grow a set and stand up for what you believe.
I am with you. I don't care what anyone calls me. These woke cry-bullies have no actual content, as soon as you stand up for yourself, they don't know what to do, and just fade away.
Oh bloody hell. I had no idea that this was a suicide. How horrific to get to this stage!!! Unthinkable cruelty! I am so sorry for not knowing the whole story. My apologies for posting without full knowledge.
There is a quite sinister echo here of not just the Maoist cultural revolution in the 1960s. nor the oracular double think of both fascism and Leninism, but the all or nothing dogma of the Reformation and Counter-Reformations to be found amongst the Woke, that augurs a plunge into the politics of totalitarian repression and wars of toleration, as the ancien regime crumbles, while new & old competing forces assemble themselves to fight over the spoils.
Once the architecture of equitable discourse that enables some semblance of a civil compact and model of consensus building is undone, the road to political violence and war is almost assured.
I would be more optimistic if the rise of the Woke Ascendancy was less entrenched in and a product of the unsustainability of late Indulgence Capitalism as a whole. Its tertiary industries (the system of social reproduction and administration) and its heavy industries (mining, manufacture and its direct ancillary services) both have sustainability issues with the commons infrastructure that they are supposed to be stewarding. Both sides have so protractedly and thoroughly deregulated and privatized the social/existential and ecological commons that they are dying. Neither side is prepared to admit just how much trouble they are already in, because admission of the devastating facts-of-life would delegitimate them immediately.
The current regime propaganda apparatuses all have a quality redolent of German regime narrativizing during the second half of WW2, when blame shifting, rationalizing and/or minimizing adverse events became the dominant communication tools, which were refined to an extent that we would recognize as happening now, whereby entire populations are kept in a psychological la la land that repels objective reality.
Failure of that inevitably temporary stratagem produces defeat, dictatorship and war. Everyone is forced to ride the tiger down to the bottom of the valley of the shadow....where there is no such thing as getting out of jail free.
Richard Bilkszto may have been more rational than any of us would be prepared to admit.
Jul 21, 2023·edited Jul 21, 2023Liked by Woke Watch Canada
Struggle sessions in China under Mao also drove people to suicide. This was inevitable, sooner or later, people crack under pressure, no one at the TDSB spoke out, they are complicit. The DEI have no shame, their heretic has been "consequenced," a term the "instructor" used during the sessions this fellow attended... a term used for those who demonstrate "insufficient allyship." From the "Daily Caller" ...."Richard Bilkszto took his own life July 13 after suffering more than a year of mental distress stemming from a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) training in the spring of 2021, his lawyer, Lisa Bildy announced on behalf of his family."
I think the B - belonging- has to do with a combination of CRRP and affirming that the person who got promoted or hired based on DEI actually belongs to that position.
I, too, met Richard on Zoom in the early days of Lighthouse and its anti-woke battle. Richard had the whole package. What a marvellous principal he must have been. James Pew writes: “Over the course of two sessions Richard was singled out and humiliated. For pushing back on the claim that Canada is a racist dystopia, it was insinuated that he was a white supremacist.” This sort of thing happens all the time. Critical Social Justice warriors get nasty and inquisitor-like and go on the blood hunt. That no colleague spoke in his defence is deplorable. That’s our world. Let’s keep fighting the good fight for a saner world for ourselves, and for Richard.
Thank you, James, for this heartfelt piece on dear Richard B, whom I also knew, as I imagine many others did. In fact, the last contact I had with him was 5 days before this terrible and tragic event that should not have happened. If only I had had an inkling. The "ifs" and regrets will haunt us endlessly.
Richard was such a great person, with a heart of gold - always ready to listen and help - and he deeply cared about ALL students. He did not need any anti-racism training, and most, if not all of us, don't either. Besides, what kind of anti-racism training, uses racism and humiliates people?
How many others have been or are being treated this way in their workplace, in their community, or anywhere for that matter? This madness has to stop. This is killing our souls and the souls of our students/children. Enough already!
Richard would still be alive if our society had not gone so mad, if people had not been so passively compliant, deep in their beauty sleep, and ignorant to what is really happening.
He would still be alive if not for the "system". Crime has many shapes and forms.
Thank you Richard. I am grateful to have had the privilege to know you and learn from you.
Well said James , “we are all worse off because of it”
https://www.sostdsb.ca/press-releases/2023-07-20-statement-on-the-passing-of-richard-bilkszto
I had followed Richard's story. This is a really tragic outcome. My only hope (and I believe this) is that more sane people (and parents) are catching on to the inherent meanness in the DIE framework, and its inherent authoritarian nature. Any movement that deliberately shames people (and puts them through struggle sessions) is inherently toxic.
Thank you for keeping this horrific injustice current. It needs to be forefront of everyone’s minds when they choose a school for their child.
Hopefully the courts will see the insanity of this CRT, DEI, and all the other mantras projected as “social justice.” It is not. It is blindfolding honesty for a dishonest outcome.
Sorry for your loss James and Catherine, we together will make this fuel us to make his legacy live on
This is how it goes. I got bullied out of a job for objecting to abusive DEI impositions that were severely affecting my mental health and ability to do my work. Not one colleague spoke up in my defense.
This tragic case must be highlighted to school boards and other related individuals when they go along with implementing radical, racist dogma such as suggesting white people belong to a culture of "white supremacists".
Go woke, go broke, now includes apparently breaking this man's heart! And ours. We must gather our courage as a result of learning about the UNFAIR suffering of this man and resolve not to let this disgraceful bullying continue.
Thanks for posting this. What a genuine tragedy.
Wonderful piece James, thank you. The bullying of the woke mob and the DEI struggle session along with the cowardly silence from his colleagues is disgraceful and appalling. Our loss of Richard makes me want to fight harder to rid this world of these illiberal cruel ideologies that are causing so much pain.
What a tragedy. May he rest in peace. I hope his colleagues think about what impact their silence had on him. It's hard to speak out but in that situation it really was imperative.
What I find is that today anyone who does not agree with the woke ideas is automatically branded as hateful and racist and if you happen to be a white male anglo saxon well then you have to be racist. If you wish to compound that and add that you are a proud straight married heterosexual male well the hounds of hell will bark at you calling you vile names and tar and feather you at the very least.
Go ahead, make my day punk I could not care less and you should not either, time to man up and stop this nonsense. Academics need to grow a set and stand up for what you believe.
I am with you. I don't care what anyone calls me. These woke cry-bullies have no actual content, as soon as you stand up for yourself, they don't know what to do, and just fade away.
Horrible, James. I don’t what to say but I had to say something. I’m sorry I didn’t know him. Too late now ....
Oh bloody hell. I had no idea that this was a suicide. How horrific to get to this stage!!! Unthinkable cruelty! I am so sorry for not knowing the whole story. My apologies for posting without full knowledge.
There is a quite sinister echo here of not just the Maoist cultural revolution in the 1960s. nor the oracular double think of both fascism and Leninism, but the all or nothing dogma of the Reformation and Counter-Reformations to be found amongst the Woke, that augurs a plunge into the politics of totalitarian repression and wars of toleration, as the ancien regime crumbles, while new & old competing forces assemble themselves to fight over the spoils.
Once the architecture of equitable discourse that enables some semblance of a civil compact and model of consensus building is undone, the road to political violence and war is almost assured.
I would be more optimistic if the rise of the Woke Ascendancy was less entrenched in and a product of the unsustainability of late Indulgence Capitalism as a whole. Its tertiary industries (the system of social reproduction and administration) and its heavy industries (mining, manufacture and its direct ancillary services) both have sustainability issues with the commons infrastructure that they are supposed to be stewarding. Both sides have so protractedly and thoroughly deregulated and privatized the social/existential and ecological commons that they are dying. Neither side is prepared to admit just how much trouble they are already in, because admission of the devastating facts-of-life would delegitimate them immediately.
The current regime propaganda apparatuses all have a quality redolent of German regime narrativizing during the second half of WW2, when blame shifting, rationalizing and/or minimizing adverse events became the dominant communication tools, which were refined to an extent that we would recognize as happening now, whereby entire populations are kept in a psychological la la land that repels objective reality.
Failure of that inevitably temporary stratagem produces defeat, dictatorship and war. Everyone is forced to ride the tiger down to the bottom of the valley of the shadow....where there is no such thing as getting out of jail free.
Richard Bilkszto may have been more rational than any of us would be prepared to admit.
Struggle sessions in China under Mao also drove people to suicide. This was inevitable, sooner or later, people crack under pressure, no one at the TDSB spoke out, they are complicit. The DEI have no shame, their heretic has been "consequenced," a term the "instructor" used during the sessions this fellow attended... a term used for those who demonstrate "insufficient allyship." From the "Daily Caller" ...."Richard Bilkszto took his own life July 13 after suffering more than a year of mental distress stemming from a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) training in the spring of 2021, his lawyer, Lisa Bildy announced on behalf of his family."
“Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.”
― Bertrand Russell
One other comment, I hear that DEI is now adding another letter to their acronym. (Not at all a familiar thing. 🤨)
DEI has now added “B” to its name. “B” = Belonging. Whatever the hell that means..... I hear the descriptive word but cannot fathom the meaning.
Just think, "war is peace" and you'll get it.
I think the B - belonging- has to do with a combination of CRRP and affirming that the person who got promoted or hired based on DEI actually belongs to that position.
Sounds like way to launder incompetence in a diversity hire.
I have no idea what CRRP is.
Culturally Relevant and Responsive Pedagogy
Sounds like a Paulo Friere concept.