• phario@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • GCanuck@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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?

      • Kaliax@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year 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@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        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.

          • voluble@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            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?

            • emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de
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              1 year ago

              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.

              • voluble@lemmy.world
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                1 year 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@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

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

        • GCanuck@lemmy.world
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          1 year 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.

      • ttmrichter@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Of course we are.

        We’re just not stupid enough to think our opinions will be unchallenged when they’re idiotic and/or contrafactual and/or hate-fuelled.

        That’s equality, my friend. Your first taste of it apparently.