Juno News - August 09, 2023


CAUGHT ON TAPEļ¼š DEI instructor bullied Richard Bilkszto in 2021 anti-racism session


Episode Stats

Length

28 minutes

Words per Minute

169.83215

Word Count

4,769

Sentence Count

227

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

22


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 You might think that the horrific suicide of Richard Bilkstow, a 24-year veteran Toronto
00:00:11.200 principal and teacher after being publicly bullied and shamed by a racist diversity,
00:00:16.960 equity and inclusion consultant in front of his peers, would lead the woke, self-flagellating
00:00:23.400 and nation-hating advocates of this ideology to pause and perhaps reconsider their efforts
00:00:28.800 to label everyone and everything an agent of white supremacy in perhaps the least racist country on
00:00:36.120 earth. But you'd be wrong. It appears as though the death of Richard Bilkstow has only emboldened
00:00:41.040 the DEI industry in this country and, as to be expected, strengthened their resolve to continue
00:00:47.120 their culture of making Maoist struggle sessions a compulsory element of training for everyone
00:00:52.980 everywhere. Would you be surprised to learn that politicians and activists are now rallying to
00:00:58.600 the defense of Kike Ojo Thompson, painting this rich black woman who berated Bilkstow as the real
00:01:05.520 victim in this story? Last week, the audio of the interactions between Kike Ojo Thompson and Richard
00:01:12.440 Bilkstow during these DEI training sessions back in 2021 was released by the journalists over at the
00:01:19.000 Free Press. And let me tell you, the audio of these interactions is just as vile and gross as you're
00:01:24.780 likely expecting it to be. A woman who has made a career out of telling white people that they're
00:01:28.600 not anti-racist enough is her telling this room of Toronto principles that Canada is a more racist
00:01:34.460 country than the United States and that Canada is a bastion of white supremacy. And because Bilkstow
00:01:39.980 stood up and challenged her absurd statements, she very confidently singled him out and verbally
00:01:45.800 abused him, called him a weed, and called him an apologist for white supremacy. After all, when you
00:01:52.600 get hired by the United States government to lead DEI training sessions and are given over a million
00:01:58.200 dollars by the Canadian government, what's one white principal standing up and telling you that
00:02:02.840 you're wrong? And perhaps most damning of all, in the series of DEI training sessions, not a single
00:02:08.940 person stood up for a man who has been lauded by the TDSB for his decades of service, for being a champion
00:02:15.020 of equality, merit, and education for all. Nobody said anything because standing up for their good
00:02:21.420 colleague would mean putting their own lives and careers in danger. This is a cultural revolution
00:02:26.520 that we are in and Richard Bilkstow's suicide will serve as a cultural flashpoint not just in Canada
00:02:32.820 but around the world as well. Drop a like in the video, help us out by subscribing to the True North
00:02:36.980 YouTube channel, stick around for an interview with the journalist that broke these audio tapes,
00:02:41.400 and the comment question for the episode is this. What is the end goal for these DEI and anti-racism
00:02:48.100 consultants who seem to take joy in bullying and harassing white people like Richard Bilkstow? Let
00:02:53.720 me know in the comments and let's get into it. In 2015, Richard Bilkstow was described by his
00:02:59.000 supervisor as an experienced, effective, and highly accomplished educational leader. His supervisor
00:03:05.260 went on to say that Bilkstow had proven his excellence in equity, instruction, entrepreneurship,
00:03:12.120 and student engagement. She finished off by describing Bilkstow as a leader among leaders.
00:03:18.160 For 24 years, Richard Bilkstow devoted his life to teaching and educating the youth of Toronto to
00:03:25.420 champion merit, hard work, academic excellence, and equality of opportunity to make sure that everyone
00:03:32.780 in Toronto had the same shot at success. But you see, somewhere along Richard Bilkstow's 24-year
00:03:40.400 journey in the TDSB, the idea of equality of opportunity gave way to equality of outcome, better
00:03:47.840 known now as equity. And equity is really just a polite way of saying discrimination against white
00:03:53.040 people. But in 2021, after coming out of retirement to take on the position of principal at Burnham
00:03:58.800 Thorpe Public School, Richard Bilkstow was forced to attend a DEI training session led by Kike Ojo
00:04:06.700 Thompson of the Kojo Institute, a woman who has made her career off of finding white supremacy and
00:04:12.960 racism where it doesn't exist and making every white person feel guilty for things they haven't done.
00:04:18.820 Anyway, in these DEI training sessions, which are really just Maoist struggle sessions against white
00:04:23.820 people, Kike Ojo Thompson can be heard telling people things like this.
00:04:29.720 The racism is, we experience this far worse here than there. So I know that's going to be a hard one
00:04:36.720 to people wrap their head around, but that's the level of white supremacy. Like Canada's a bastion of
00:04:41.940 white supremacy and colonialism. Like they at least had a fighting posture against at least the monarchy.
00:04:48.580 Here we celebrate the monarchy, the very heart and soul and origin of the colonial structure.
00:04:55.480 Think about that, right? And all that it represents. We hold it dear still.
00:05:00.600 Canada is more racist than the United States. Canada is a bastion of white supremacy. It's more
00:05:07.080 racist than the United States because we have the monarchy and we celebrate the monarchy, which I find
00:05:12.260 particularly funny because it's precisely because of the monarchy and the British influence in Canada
00:05:16.900 that led upper Canada in 1793 to be the first British colony to abolish slavery. Not standing
00:05:23.780 for the outrageous slander of our great country, Bilkstow made what proves to be a fatal mistake.
00:05:30.220 He thought he could stand up to this woman and say that as a matter of fact, she's completely wrong.
00:05:36.540 Well, this is what it sounded like when Richard was the only person in that Zoom call to stand up
00:05:40.760 and speak the obvious.
00:05:43.440 I understand. I want to hear what you're saying, right? However, I think to ignore that fact,
00:05:48.640 right, that we, we talked about here about, you know, capitalism, socialism. We're very happy here.
00:05:55.040 We have a public education system where everyone is funded the same way. It's not like that United
00:05:59.600 States. We have a healthcare system here where everyone has access to healthcare. It is not the
00:06:05.120 same way in the United States. So to say, sit here and say, all honesty, we're talking about facts and
00:06:11.780 figures and to walk into the classroom tomorrow and say, Canada is just as bad as the United States.
00:06:17.420 I think we're doing an incredible disservice to our learners, incredible disservice to our learners.
00:06:22.300 And again, yeah, that's what I want to want to say that, right?
00:06:25.320 Thank you so much. What I'm finding interesting is that in the middle of this COVID disaster,
00:06:31.860 where the inequities in this fair and equal healthcare system have been properly shown to
00:06:40.520 all of us. I mean, so it's just, and so what's fascinating is, and this is why we're in this
00:06:47.100 place that we're in, is that you think, so we're talking about anti-black racism, but you and your
00:06:51.700 whiteness think that you can tell me what's really going on for black people. Like, is that what you're
00:06:56.900 doing? I think that's what you're doing, but I'm not sure. So I'm going to leave you space to tell me
00:07:01.360 what you're doing right now.
00:07:04.340 Exactly. I just wanted to make the point. You were talking about the United States,
00:07:07.260 and I just want to do a comparison. And as I said, you talked about facts and figures and,
00:07:12.200 and, and, and, you know, listening to the facts and figures. And I think if everyone here looks
00:07:16.720 at the facts and figures and all kinds of, all kinds of studies, and, uh, you'll see we're a far
00:07:23.500 more just society. We have, we have room for improvement. Absolutely. Are we racist and everything?
00:07:27.840 Absolutely. Great. This is Andrew from the Poetry Institute. Yeah.
00:07:31.660 Yeah. Just to talk about everything that Keith has been saying, you know, we're not here to compare,
00:07:36.040 you know, we're not here to say, this is worse than the next one. No. And not, no, listen, just,
00:07:39.920 you know, we hear what you're saying. So I, you know, I hate to disagree with you in this forum,
00:07:44.200 but, uh, it's just not, not relevant what you bring up. And unfortunately, the experience of
00:07:50.180 indigenous, black, and racialized students in the TDSB, probably in whatever school you lead,
00:07:55.700 are just not good enough. And that's just the reality. So I think if we want to be an apologist
00:08:01.680 for, for the United States or Canada, this really isn't the forum for that.
00:08:05.320 Now listen to Kike Ojo Thompson in this clip. The following meeting, after previously berating
00:08:10.940 Richard Bilkstow in front of his colleagues, she's laughing to herself and she says she can't
00:08:15.900 believe her luck that someone would resist against the claims that Canada is a bastion of white
00:08:21.460 supremacy.
00:08:21.900 But one of the ways that white supremacy is upheld, protected, reproduced, upkept,
00:08:29.540 um, defended is through resistance. And like I said, as I began to speak earlier, we had, I'm so lucky.
00:08:38.000 I would have thought my luck would show up so well last week that we got perfect evidence of a
00:08:44.720 wonderful example of resistance that you all got to bear witness to. So we're going to talk about it.
00:08:49.980 Um, because I mean, it doesn't get better than this.
00:08:52.680 It's in this moment that Ojo Thompson essentially calls Bilkstow a white supremacist in front of his
00:08:57.540 colleagues. And notice what she says at the very end. It doesn't get better than this. What an
00:09:02.780 astonishing thing to say. Not only did no principals stand up for Bilkstow, other principals on that call
00:09:08.740 joined the pylon. One principal, who's only identified as Lisa, calls Bilkstow the whiteness.
00:09:15.600 Bilkstow would leave Burnham Thorpe and go on sick leave, citing workplace harassment. The Workplace
00:09:21.280 Safety and Insurance Board supported Bilkstow's claim of workplace harassment. And the findings for
00:09:27.100 this 2021 workplace tribunal about what happened between Bilkstow and Thompson really says all you
00:09:32.580 need to know. Based on the information on file, I am satisfied that the conduct of the speaker
00:09:37.180 was abusive, egregious, and vexatious, and rises to the level of workplace harassment and bullying.
00:09:43.960 The WSIB's view was that the DEI trainer intended to cause reputational damage and to make an example
00:09:50.700 out of Bilkstow. You might think that these Maoist struggle sessions that bully, berate,
00:09:55.640 and single out people who dare to stand up and defend the truth, might be facing more scrutiny
00:10:00.940 now that Richard Bilkstow has taken his life, and this story has become international news.
00:10:06.860 But actually, it seems as though the opposite has occurred. Over the weekend, a rally was held
00:10:11.820 in support of Kike Ojo-Thompson and the Kojo Institute in Hamilton. And speaking at this rally
00:10:18.060 was an Ontario NDP member of parliament, Matthew Green. Listen as he singles out conservative
00:10:24.360 commentators for attacking Kike Ojo-Thompson and basically makes Ojo-Thompson out to be the victim
00:10:30.700 in this story. Those right-wing media pundits who would seek to weaponize this moment of tragedy
00:10:37.760 against Kike and the Kojo Institute, I have this to say. It is not because of her lack of preparedness
00:10:47.320 or unprofessionalism. No. It is precisely because Kike and the Kojo Institute
00:10:53.660 and every single anti-racist and equity worker that is doing this work is effective in dismantling
00:11:00.480 white supremacy, is effective in addressing anti-blackness in these classrooms and in these
00:11:06.380 public spaces that has this moment of reaction. I want to be clear that every single speaker today
00:11:13.880 could have been Kike, could have been the Kojo Institute, could have been targeted by the
00:11:20.720 violence of white supremacy online and in our communities, could have been any one of us.
00:11:26.680 So I just want to say in closing, thank you. Thank you not just to Kike and the Kojo Institute
00:11:34.320 and all those who stood in solidarity with her in that moment. Know that she is a personification
00:11:40.580 of the struggles that we have, of the progress and the fights that we have won. And in this country
00:11:46.280 which is a supposed bastion of white supremacy according to Kike Ojo Thompson, Kike manages to
00:11:51.660 find a way to get over a million dollars in government grants for her critical race theory
00:11:56.660 DEI projects. Aside from running the Kojo Institute, Kike happens to run an organization called the
00:12:03.360 Parents of Black Children. And on the Parents of Black Children website, they proudly present to the
00:12:09.580 world that they have received over a million dollars in government grants. Now these government grants
00:12:14.700 come from, as far as we can tell, the city of Toronto and the Ontario government, you know, led by that
00:12:20.540 true conservative Doug Ford and that really principled conservative education minister Stephen Lecce.
00:12:26.400 And because we're living in this cultural revolution where anyone who dares to speak up about this
00:12:30.540 absurd nonsense is immediately cancelled and basically blacklisted from their jobs, the TDSB,
00:12:36.280 the Ontario Principals Council, and of course the Ontario Ministry of Education led by that true
00:12:41.260 conservative Stephen Lecce have all recommitted to anti-racism and DEI training. After all, the entire
00:12:48.040 DEI industry itself relies on finding white supremacy and racism where it doesn't exist. Once you and your
00:12:55.740 organization have successfully rooted out systemic racism, organizations like the Kojo Institute and
00:13:01.520 race grifters like Kike Ojo Thompson would be out of work. So of course, no matter how much
00:13:06.540 institutions like the TDSB collectively bend the knee, institute racial quotas, and admit to upholding
00:13:12.420 white supremacy, it will always still exist. White supremacy will always be there because women like
00:13:17.580 Kike Ojo Thompson need to make their money somehow. Canada may be, in fact, the least racist country on
00:13:23.820 earth. I can say that with confidence because in our society, we simply don't tolerate racists.
00:13:28.820 But is it actually even true? Because in Canada, white men are routinely excluded from jobs, and
00:13:34.640 employers will openly and without hesitation advertise jobs where white men need not apply. In fact, the
00:13:42.120 Ontario Human Rights Commission makes it clear that this practice is, in fact, totally acceptable.
00:13:47.420 The Ontario Human Rights Code allows special programs to relieve disadvantage or achieve equal
00:13:52.800 opportunity to counter the effects of systemic discrimination. Such programs include measures to
00:13:58.500 remove barriers that discriminate against groups and make sure that disadvantaged groups have the
00:14:03.280 same advantages that others take for granted. According to this National Post article by Jamie
00:14:07.620 Sarkanak in April of 2023, being not white, male, or able-bodied was a requirement for the University of
00:14:14.560 British Columbia's 2022 Research Chair job postings in food science and quantum computing. Similar
00:14:21.240 requirements were listed for the University of Toronto's positions in management, education,
00:14:25.380 dentistry, engineering, and medicine. Now, this is what equity in practice looks like. Joining us now
00:14:30.820 on the show is the journalist that broke the audio tapes of those interactions between Richard
00:14:36.840 Bilkstow and Kika Ojo Thompson. Rupa Subramania, one of my colleagues here at True North, also the host of
00:14:43.300 the Rupa Subramania show. Rupa, thanks for coming on the show.
00:14:46.760 Thanks, Harrison. It's great to be on your show.
00:14:48.720 So you released the audio tapes of these interactions. As I said in the show, they're
00:14:54.320 just as gross and disgusting as I think anyone imagined them to be. You clearly hear Kika just
00:15:01.920 berating Richard Bilkstow, singling him out because he dared to say that Canada was in fact
00:15:07.200 not as racist as the United States. It just goes, it gets worse from there. But the fallout of this
00:15:14.020 story, I find to be more interesting. You now have politicians in Canada rallying to Kika Ojo Thompson's
00:15:21.940 defense, to the Kojo Institute's defense. They're holding speeches and doing rallies, shamelessly
00:15:27.180 defending her and making Kika Ojo Thompson the victim of the story. The victim of the story,
00:15:33.700 not of course being Richard Bilkstow, the man who took his life. What do you make of this defense
00:15:38.740 of Kika and the Kojo Institute and really the DEI industry?
00:15:44.040 Yeah, thanks, Harrison. So my story for the Free Press, which includes the audio recordings,
00:15:51.720 which I was able to obtain big chunks of the audio recordings of the DEI session
00:15:58.380 that Richard Bilkstow attended, where he was bullied and smeared as a white supremacist,
00:16:08.000 makes for, you know, it's very difficult to listen to it. It's very painful. You can see just how
00:16:14.100 horrific the whole thing was and how, you know, what he must have been going through when you had
00:16:20.080 this person, you know, bullying him and laughing, you know, as she's bullying him. And then you had
00:16:30.020 his colleagues mercilessly pile on him. And, and, and it was, you know, you, it just makes you realize
00:16:38.000 just, just, you know, just how devastated he must have felt, how let down he must have felt. So
00:16:43.660 I'm not entirely surprised at the fact that you have politicians, like the, this NDP politician,
00:16:52.660 Matthew Green, I believe that's whom you're referring to. I'm not at all surprised that,
00:16:57.320 that, you know, people like that are rallying in defense of Ojo Thompson, because that's,
00:17:05.460 that's their ideology. That's what they're going to defend. They're, they're not going to,
00:17:09.400 you know, this is, this is for them. It's as Richard said in an interview with the free press
00:17:17.680 before he, he died, this was a few months ago. He, he said, you know, these school boards,
00:17:26.920 it's, or at least at the TDSP, it's not, it's not about competence anymore. It's all about the
00:17:33.140 ideology. And I think that, that, that would have, that applies to the political establishment as well,
00:17:40.300 especially with, with the NDP. So I'm not at all surprised that they're coming in support of her,
00:17:45.980 because if, if they didn't, I mean, that would, I mean, I would have, I would have, you know,
00:17:52.160 I would have liked to have seen them do something different, but this was fully expected as far as I'm
00:17:57.320 concerned. Right. And, and in those audio recordings, as you point out, it's not just that
00:18:02.920 the principals, the other 199 principals at that meeting are silent. In fact, as you point out,
00:18:09.500 some of them are piling onto Richard. This man was lauded by the TDSP for his decades of service to
00:18:16.420 the school board for being a champion of equality and fairness in schools. And the moment that Kike
00:18:23.540 singles him out, everyone else stays silent. And in fact, even worse, they start to pile on.
00:18:29.180 I noticed a tweet you put out Rupa. I think it was just a few days ago after this story came out
00:18:34.140 and you had put out a call to any of the other 200 school principals that were in these meetings
00:18:40.820 to speak anonymously to you about this. And you point out that not a single person has come forward.
00:18:47.120 People are afraid to show a, to defend this man who was completely berated and bullied in front of
00:18:55.460 all of his peers. Why do you think there's this culture of fear that, that surrounds the DEI industry?
00:19:02.460 Well, I mean, I mean, it's a very important question. And the answer to that is, you know,
00:19:09.940 has many layers. It's, it's, it's complicated. So you have, um, a culture of compliance and political
00:19:17.560 correctness in Canada, which, uh, predates all of this stuff. Um, all of the DEI and the culture wars
00:19:24.680 and wokeism. It, it, it goes even before that. And then, uh, and so the environment, in my opinion,
00:19:31.260 um, was just ripe for all of these things to take root, um, uh, cultural Marxism and, um, uh, diversity,
00:19:40.940 equity, inclusion, critical race theory, all of that stuff. Actually, I think, uh, Canada was just,
00:19:47.520 uh, prime for that. It was just, it was just there, you know, the environment was there for,
00:19:52.500 for these things to take root. And, um, and, and, and, and, and so I think you have a set of people who
00:19:58.980 truly believe in this, they truly, you have, uh, white people who truly are ashamed of the fact
00:20:05.280 that they're white. Um, they, they are very, um, you know, they, I think they're ashamed of who they
00:20:11.460 are. Uh, look, I mean, no one's denying that, you know, colonialism is bad and, you know, things that
00:20:18.320 happened under colonialism were bad. And, you know, most sensible people would agree that, you know,
00:20:24.440 what happened in the past was, was, was, was, you know, is not something that we would support today.
00:20:29.780 But as I've argued in many, many, um, uh, places, uh, including on a debate that I was part of, uh,
00:20:38.000 the monk debates about two years ago, the Canada of today is not the Canada of 1867. We've made a lot
00:20:44.060 of progress since then, and we're not, we're not the same country. Uh, we made a lot of gains towards, uh,
00:20:50.440 inclusion and that sort of thing. And that's one reason why I chose to come to Canada all those
00:20:56.600 years ago, because I, because, you know, I, I, I thought this country was different from every other
00:21:01.980 country. So, uh, the, the fact is that, um, that, uh, you know, there is a culture of fear, but there's
00:21:09.440 a culture of fear everywhere, uh, in, you know, all over the world, but there's something that's unique,
00:21:16.980 I believe that's happening here. It's unique to Canada. I think it's a culture of cowardice. I
00:21:22.520 think that's what I said a few days ago. Uh, I'm just tired of the excuse of the culture of fear
00:21:27.320 because, you know, we're all fearful of, uh, losing our jobs of, you know, I'm fearful of, uh, you know,
00:21:33.580 that, uh, that, you know, I may one day stop writing, you know, we all have our fears. We all have
00:21:38.260 bills to pay. We all have, um, uh, things that we depend on. Nobody wants, uh, that to be taken away
00:21:44.940 from us. Uh, no one wants that to be taken away, but, but here you have educators, teachers,
00:21:52.780 school principals, vice principals. They're partly in charge of shaping young minds. They're supposed
00:21:58.100 to be cultivating, um, um, uh, critical thinking in, in young people. They're supposed to be telling
00:22:05.020 young people to be not, uh, to not be fearful, to stand up for what is right. And yet these very
00:22:10.860 same people, uh, presided over the bullying, um, of, of, of a man who is just politely and gently
00:22:17.620 pushing against a claim, um, that Canada is not a bastion of white supremacy. And they all either
00:22:24.140 stood by and just watched or, uh, and applauded and, and, and, and piled on him. And that's what's
00:22:31.180 incredibly shocking and disturbing because these, these are people who are educating, uh, uh, you know,
00:22:37.620 our kids today. Um, and so it's, it's, it's quite worrying and it's a cultural cowardice. Not a single
00:22:44.100 person has come forward even to this day, even anonymously saying, Rupa, you know, I was there
00:22:49.120 at this session. All I was really looking for at that point when I sent my tweet more than a week
00:22:54.080 ago was, look, can you corroborate what happened in the session? I'd already listened to the recordings
00:22:58.800 at this point. So, you know, this was just another check. Um, just, just, you know, just tell me,
00:23:04.560 you know, what happened? Is this what happened? What, what, what was that like? So no one,
00:23:08.480 no one came forward and, uh, it's, it's just shameful. I mean, and I think people should,
00:23:12.200 uh, should realize just how brave and courageous, um, these people really are in the real world.
00:23:17.920 They're quite happy to pile on an innocent man in a zoom session, but, uh, they're just cowardly
00:23:22.860 when it comes to actually defending themselves or to be held, held to account for, uh, what they
00:23:28.080 were part of. Yeah. And, and what do you make of this? So Kike calls Canada a bastion of
00:23:33.960 white supremacy. Uh, it seems to me, Rupa, that there does happen. There does seem to be a double
00:23:39.880 standard in that meeting. You heard that his colleagues were referring to referring to him as
00:23:44.940 the whiteness and that Kike referred to him as a weed, that the weed whacker needed to come out
00:23:51.160 and put him down. And the reality is that you won't, you won't find any job posting in this country
00:23:58.600 that explicitly excludes say black men or Chinese men from applying. But there are such cases as job
00:24:06.520 postings at universities and other place and other institutions that explicitly exclude white men
00:24:12.200 from being hired. And even the Ontario human rights tribunal has a, has a, a disclaimer underneath
00:24:18.200 systemic discrimination that explicitly allows special programs to relieve disadvantage or achieve
00:24:25.320 equal opportunity to encounter the effects of systemic discrimination. So it doesn't seem to be
00:24:30.840 that Canada is this bastion of white supremacy, obviously, but it does seem to be that in the
00:24:36.520 institutions, not hiring white men is allowed. I mean, what kind of white supremacist country is this?
00:24:44.520 Yeah. I mean, it's the, you know, this is again, um, revisiting these points that I made up a couple of
00:24:50.440 years ago in this debate that I mentioned, the monk debates, and this is precisely what I was saying,
00:24:54.600 that this is a country that has gone to great lengths to include people, uh, in the, in the, um,
00:25:02.760 you know, in, in, in, in the, in its institutions, um, the leader of, uh, uh, uh, you know, the NDP is
00:25:11.880 a South Asian man, uh, uh, of South Asian descent, um, uh, leading talking heads on TV and
00:25:20.200 elsewhere are, uh, you know, you can see the diversity, um, you know, uh, the, there's no
00:25:26.200 escaping that. Um, and, you know, so, so I'm not, I'm not quite sure where this is coming from, you
00:25:33.960 know, why they insist that Canada is a bastion of white supremacy. It's, it's, it's, it's meant to,
00:25:39.960 uh, shock you. It's meant to be, um, it's, it's meant to rile people up, I suppose. Um, it's not based in
00:25:47.640 fact, uh, and that's what Richard Bilkstow was, uh, trying to, uh, say in that, um, when he, when
00:25:54.280 he stood up and spoke and he said, look, these are the facts. We have a public health, uh, healthcare
00:25:58.840 system that's accessible to everybody. We have a public education system that's accessible to
00:26:03.320 everybody. And that's, that's a fair point. That absolutely is. If in our system, if we all have
00:26:11.560 access to the same thing, but the outcomes, which is what Kiki Oja Thompson was referring to,
00:26:15.880 that the outcomes are different for kids growing up in Jane and Finch neighborhood versus the kids
00:26:20.920 of Forest Hill, the outcomes could be different for a range of different reasons. It's not because
00:26:26.600 of white supremacy, you know, it could be, um, you know, you grew up, grow up in a poor household,
00:26:32.760 you know, you, you have parents who are not there at home, you know, you're left to your own devices.
00:26:38.200 Um, and you're, uh, you know, it could be a range of different factors, but to blame it all on
00:26:43.880 white supremacy as Kiki Oja Thompson does is just absolutely ridiculous. And it, she should be
00:26:50.520 lapped out of court for saying something like that. Um, uh, you know, here I am as a person of color,
00:26:56.600 uh, you know, hosting a podcast on, uh, uh, for true north. And I, you know, and I've, I've written
00:27:04.680 for the national post and the pages of the national post. Um, maybe I should thank white supremacy for
00:27:11.400 allowing me these opportunities because, you know, I, I mean, only in Canada would this kind
00:27:17.240 of thing be possible or may, and even in the U S but, but, you know, I cannot imagine this happening
00:27:22.600 anywhere else on the planet. So, uh, so the fact that, you know, I've had these opportunities,
00:27:28.280 um, you know, I, I'm not sitting here and saying it's, it's, it's, you know, it's just outrageous.
00:27:34.040 That's all I can say. Yeah. Well, you know, Rupa, a good man for standing up for his country,
00:27:40.040 for standing up for the truth and for standing up for everyone in that room. He was pushed to
00:27:45.560 the breaking point, a tragic story. And thank you so much for coming on the show, Rupa,
00:27:49.240 really appreciate it. All right, everyone, that's going to do it for us today on the show. Thank you
00:27:52.440 so much for tuning in. My name is Harrison Faulkner, and this is Ration.