DEI and the Proliferation of Anti-White Racism in Canada

Richard Bilkszto was a widely respected principal. Specializing in adult education, he was assigned to schools composed of students aged 18 and up, who had either not graduated on time or had recently immigrated to Canada. Upon retirement, Bilkszto continued to work as a contract principal for the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).

In the spring of 2021, he attended a training session for educators, run by the KOJO Institute, a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) consultancy. During this session, Bilkszto challenged KOJO founder Kike Ojo-Thompson on her assertion that Canada is a more racist country than the United States. She replied: “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?”.

For the rest of the session, and the following one, Bilkszto’s comment was repeatedly brought up as an example of the kind of “resistance” that upholds white supremacy. Humiliated in front of his colleagues, he went on leave.  When he returned, the TDSB refused to reinstate him to his previous role, revoked a work contract he had been awarded, and disinvited him from a graduation ceremony. Deeply affected by these traumatic circumstances, he recently took his own life.

A fuller version is available on the National Post, which has published four columns on this tragic story. The CBC has been judiciously keeping their readers in blissful ignorance, publishing only one short, anodyne piece. Scroll through Twitter, or the National Post comment section, and you will see the beginnings of an anti-woke backlash that has been building for some time among the Canadian population.

Gone are the days when “diversity” was a naïve, but mostly harmless personal value. Canadians are now baffled to find themselves living under a disturbing state-sanctioned ideology, which they are afraid to openly challenge due to social sanction and career repercussions.

Whatever one calls this ideology, whether DEI, critical race theory or wokeness, it is undeniably promoting hostility against white Canadians. In public schools, students are taught that the country is “systemically racist”, and that white people hold “unconscious bias” and possess a nebulous “white privilege”.

University students are taught that, due to the alleged power dynamics in our society, only white people can be racist. There is even a whole field of study in universities called “Whiteness Studies”. Needless to say, it is not an examination of Europe’s great achievements.

When Bilkszto challenged Kike Ojo-Thompson, she informed him that “your job in this work as white people is to believe”, not to question, claims of racism. It would not be acceptable if this type of language was directed at any other race. Canadians should not tolerate it being directed at white people.

Speaking out will earn you the false label of racist. The alternative, however, is the continuance of a hateful ideology which is causing real harm. To restore peace, order, and good government, concerned citizens should demand the defunding of all DEI programs in Canada.

Editor’s note: This Counter Current column did not appear in the print edition of the bi-weekly Islands Marketplace. Instead, it is only being published here, on Dominion Review. Printing of the Counter Current column will resume as of the next edition of the Marketplace.