this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023

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Jamie Sarkonak: Toronto principal bullied over false charge of racism dies from suicide (nationalpost.com)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/canada

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[–] phario 58 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

God. I don’t even know what to say.

The article reads so strange…like describing a cult.

His stellar career took on a sour note after he was bullied in a diversity, equity and inclusion training session for Toronto District School Board (TDSB) administrators in 2021, according to a lawsuit Bilkszto filed in court. His sin, in the eyes of facilitators at the KOJO Institute, was his questioning of their claim that Canada was a more racist place than the United States. Canada wasn’t perfect, he said, but it still offers a lot of good. For the rest of the training session, and throughout a follow-up training session the week after, facilitators repeatedly referred to Bilkszto’s comments as examples of white supremacy.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 years ago (3 children)

That’s because it is a cult. No one could seriously claim that Canada was more racist than America.

We certainly have issues. And our treatment of several marginalized groups leave a bad taste in one’s mouth, but more racist?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 years ago

What's the value in even framing the situation as competitive? This man responded with a reasonable take for such a shit claim. This is another reminder for me to keep my mouth shut more often than not.

[–] phx 19 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah, certain areas of Canada may be more racist than certain areas of the US, and certainly racist in different ways towards different cultures, but it's pretty hard to compare to the deep south where in some places they'd happily bring back slavery if they had the opportunity to do so.

[+] [email protected] -8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm trying to figure out what you mean by this. Is your experience that Alberta is a particularly racist province, more so than other provinces in Canada?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

That's how I understand it, and from my experience it's accurate as well. Alberta is basically Kentucky or Alabama or something.

*edit but I don't think that it's worse than those places, definitely canada is not MORE racist, especially in general.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

If you care to share, what has been your experience?

I have to say I am surprised by your top line assertion, but I'm open to change my mind if you have an argument you can substantiate here about the similarities between Alberta, and Kentucky or Alabama. I also don't think comparing different cultures is necessarily productive if our goal is to deal with the real world effects of racism. I think racism exists in Canada and it's something worth talking about and trying to address in our context.

[–] phx 3 points 2 years ago

Been there plenty of times, including earlier this year. I'd recommend visiting the Royal Tyrell Museum if you have the chance.

[–] jerkface 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Any stark difference that you can see is projection. We're peas in a pod.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Similar yes. Different, also yes.

We simply don’t have the same ingrained prejudices that America has. Ours are different and I would argue less so. After all we don’t have politicians that would openly state that slavery benefitted black people.